LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



^f-.wri. I 



UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



SIX MONTHS 

OF A 

NEWFOUNDLAND MISSIONARY'S 
JOURNAL. 



SIX MONTHS 



OF A 



NEWFOUNDLAND MISSIONARY'S 



JOURNAL, 



FEBRUARY TO AUGUST, 






1835. 



SECOND EDITION. 

/ 






LONDON : 
SMITH, ELDER AND CO., CORNHILL, 

BOOKSELLERS TO THEIR MAJESTIES. 



1836. 




PRINTED BV STEWART AND CO., OLD BAILEY. 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



In sending a Second Edition of this Journal 
to the press without any revision by the Author, 
the Editor is not without apprehension that she 
may forfeit the kindness with which it was 
received on its first appearance ; but as the 
sole design of its publication was to make known 
the spiritual wants of the poor in Newfound- 
land, so the interest which it has excited in 
behalf of the destitute Members of our Church 
on that island, is the sole cause of its second 
appearance. 

The Editor is assured, that the Author would 
rather that his literary chatacter should suffer, 

than that the Church in Newfoundland should 
A 3 



VI PREFACE. 

remain unsupported. Gratefully does she ac- 
knowledge, that the appeal for help has not 
been made in vain. Many have come forward 
most liberally, to aid and cheer the Missionary 
in his arduous labours. Already has the sum of 
One Thousand Pounds been contributed towards 
the erection of the new Church in St. John's, 
Newfoundland, which is nearly completed ; but 
an equal sum is required, in order to exonerate 
the Archdeacon from his personal responsibili- 
ties, and secure another Clergyman to the 
Island : for, as soon as the expense of the 
Church is defrayed, a Curate will be engaged 
to assist in it, and in the Jive settlements around 
St. John's, which, in the winter of 1835-6, have 
devolved wholly on the Archdeacon's care. 

At the request of a few individuals (who have 
not felt satisfied with aiding the erection of the 
Church alone), a separate fund has been com- 
menced, in order to supply the destitute settle- 
ments, visited by the Archdeacon, with Books ; 



PREFACE. VU 

and one Lady has generously offered to con- 
tribute towards the support of a Missionary at 
the Isle of Valen : but as the new Church at St. 
John's is the primary object of this appeal, so 
it is desired that it should be the first object of 
consideration. 

F. W. 

London, June 4lh, 1836. 



AN APPEAL 

ON BEHALF OF 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS OF THE 
TOWN OF ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND. 



The town of St. John's contains above 13,000 souls; 
about 8,000 are Roman Catholics, and the remaining 
5,000 are principally attached to the Protestant 
Church ; and it is for the poor emigrant Protestant 
Settlers in Newfoundland that this appeal is made to 
the British public for the erection of a new Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the capital of the Island. The 
present Church in St. John's does not accommodate 
more than 800 persons. There are two Dissenting 
meeting-houses — one a Wesleyan, the other a Scotch 
place of worship. These Chapels contain about 500 
in each ; thus leaving about 3,000 Protestants without 
any accommodation in a place of worship ; whilst a 
second Popish Chapel is soon to be erected in our 
capital — and this in a colony where the state of society 
equals, if it do not exceed, in ignorance, superstition, 
and insubordination, the worst parts of Ireland. This 
want of Church-room exists in a town where inter- 
marriages between Roman Catholics and Protestants 
are lamentably frequent — in a town where a resident 
Roman Catholic Bishop and three or four Priests are 
not only most zealous and indefatigable in their spiri- 



X APPEAL. 

tual duties and endeavours to make converts, but 
where they also use every means in their power to 
encourage the natural superstition of the people ; and 
by forbidding the children of Roman Catholic parents 
attending Protestant Schools, they effectually keep 
them in that state of ignorance which best suits their 
false and idolatrous doctrines. 

A Nunnery has been established, where a variety 
of fancy work is taught, to induce the Protestant chil- 
dren to attend the school attached to the establish- 
ment ; and no scheme of allurement or intimidation is 
omitted to ensnare the poor and ignorant into the trap 
laid for them. A number of Roman Catholic females, 
called " Confraternity Women," are constantly em- 
ployed about the town amongst the sick and dying, to 
impress upon the minds of the weak the advantages 
arising to all who die in the profession of the Romish 
faith. 

You who value the religious privileges by which 
you are surrounded ! — you who have found comfort 
from our beautiful Liturgy ! — you who have families 
around you, and know not to what part of the world 
Providence eventually may call them ! — you who are 
engaged in that most interesting employment, the 
Parish Sunday-School ! — you who there watch and 
pray for your pupils, leading them to Christ the 
Saviour, and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier— looking 
upon them as the heads of future families who may be 



APPEAL. XI 

scattered through the wilds of America, or settled 
amongst idolaters, infidels, or scoffers ! — you who love 
the Church of your fathers, for which Martyrs have 
suffered and bled ! — you who remember that the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church in the United States of 
America, which is now a blessing to millions, is a 
scion from our English Church, the fruit of a seed 
sown by English Missionaries, watered by English 
bounty, blessed by Him who has given her an abundant 
increase ! To you this appeal will not be made in 
vain, for funds to build a new Protestant Episcopal 
Church in St. John's, Newfoundland. Two Thousand 
Pounds*" are immediately required for the projected 
building, which will be considerably enlarged if a 
generous public should put a sufficient sum in the 
hands of the Archdeacon of Newfoundland, who has 
commenced the building on his own responsibility. 



Subscriptions continue to be received by 

Messrs. Drummond & Co., Charing-cross. 
Messrs. Barclay & Co., Lombard-street. 
Messrs. Rivington, St. Paul's Church-yard and 

Waterloo-place. 
Messrs. Hatchard & Son, Piccadilly. 
Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill. 

* Since this appeal was first circulated. One Thousand 
Pounds have been collected, but another Thousand is still 
required. 



ERRATA. 

Page 54 line 2 from bottom, for " another path" read " nn 
otter path." 
88 ,, 17 from top, for " Tutphea" read " Leitphen." 
96 ,, 12 from top, for "returned" read " detained." 
110 ,, 3 from top, insert " so" after " seemed." 



DEDICATORY LETTER. 



St. John's, Newfoundland, 
November 11, 1835. 
My dear Wife, 

Many of my friends, who, like yourself, take a 
deep interest in the spiritual condition of the 
scattered members of our protestant episcopal 
church, pressed me, upon my return from my 
late tour of visitation to the southern and western 
shores of this island, to furnish them with an 
opportunity of perusing the notes of my journal. 
Our remote settlements, and the interior of the 
island, are so difficult of access, that many who 
have been all their lives resident in Newfound- 
land, have not so much knowledge of our settle- 
ments along the shore, and of the interior, as 
they have of the more distant provinces of North 
America, which have been accurately described 
to them by different travellers. Those, there- 

B 



I DEDICATORY LETTER. 

fore, who felt a curiosity to learn something of 
these parts of their own Terra Nova, which 
were to them still a Terra Incognita, urged 
upon me a compliance with the same request : 
they expressed, too, the desire that I would 
include in my journal the notice of matters 
beyond the more immediate field of the Mis- 
sionary's inquiry, which I might have found 
interesting upon my tour, and might have 
thought worthy of being recorded. I had pro- 
mised myself, on my return to St. John's, a 
temporary cessation of labour. This promised 
ease, however, was somewhat curtailed by the 
attention which the filling up the brief notes of 
my journal required, superadded, as it was, to 
the formidable accumulation of the correspond- 
ence of six months, and the care of the churches 
within this archdeaconry. 

It was under great difficulties that I had kept 
even the slightest diary of my journey ; my ink 
would frequently freeze, notwithstanding all my 



DEDICATORY LETTER. 6 

precautions ; my supply of paper was alv/ays ne- 
cessarily scanty, and it occasionally altogether 
failed me, in districts where it would have been 
as reasonable to have expected a gas-lamp for 
my convenience at night, as a sheet of letter- 
paper by day. Had it not been for some boxes 
of paper, which had been dispersed along the 
shore from different wrecks, I might have failed 
entirely in procuring this convenience in some 
places where my application was successful. 
The notes which I succeeded in keeping, under 
all these disadvantages, were, moreover, very 
slight ; they were intended merely to furnish 
me with brief particulars of dates and journeys, 
and duties performed, for the information of the 
committee of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, under which 
society I have had the honour to be a missionary 
in British North America nearly ten years. 
They are, therefore, destitute of that information 
respecting the population and other particulars, 
B 2 



DEDICATORY LETTER. 



which it would have been my endeavour to have 
collected and accurately noted, had I anticipated 
the present application of my journal. 

Brief, however, as the notes necessarily were, 
which I had been able to take while engaged 
upon my laborious tour, they have increased 
under my hand, since I have endeavoured to 
reduce them into a regular journal, until they 
have almost alarmed me by their bulk. Had 
they been confined to details strictly Missionary, 
— although, on the solicitation of my friends, 1 
had resolved on giving them a greater publicity 
than my correspondence with the Reverend 
Archibald Campbell, the secretary of the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, would have 
given them, — I, yet, could not have wished for 
them a fitter, or more flattering mode of intro- 
duction to the reading world than tbey would 
huve had, if I could have solicited and obtained 
the honour of being allowed to dedicate the 
humble journal to his Grace the venerated 



DEDICATORY LETTER. 5 

President, or the respected Board of that Society, 
or to our own beloved Diocesan. But the ma- 
terial is not worthy, I deeply feel, of such dis- 
tinction. I must consequently send it forth 
without an introduction, or seek for it the in- 
terest of some one, who, from partiality to the 
Missionary, and sympathy with his occupation, 
may be disposed to overlook the defects of his 
journal ; and, from a knowledge of the extreme 
difficulty of keeping a requisite supply of writing 
materials, or of using them in such circum- 
stances, and amid such latitudes, may make 
all due allowances for its many imperfections. 
— Whom, then, could I, upon such deter- 
mination, select more properly than yourself? 
— who have cheered me in the intervals of my 
Missionary wanderings, and have rendered my 
long seasons of absence from my dear home, 
and its scenes of domestic comfort, more support- 
able, by the assurance that the work of the 
church, and the education of the young in the 



b DEDICATORY LETTER. 

Sunday-school, were making progress under 
your judicious care and indefatigable attention, 
while I was unavoidably away. You have con- 
stantly felt all a Missionary's anxiety for all a 
Missionary's objects. Again, to whom could I, 
in duty, more fitly dedicate this journal, than to 
you, who experienced so much anxiety for my 
safety during my somewhat perilous tour ? — an 
anxiety, heightened by its having been im- 
practicable for me, through the want of oppor- 
tunities of communicating with the capital, to 
inform you for months together of my occupa- 
tions, of my whereabouts, or of my safety ; 
during which time you were living in a town, 
which, for the lawlessness of a large portion of 
its inhabitants, who are excited to frequent 
breaches of the peace by a most seditious Ro- 
mish priesthood, is as little desirable a place of 
residence as many of the disturbed townships 
in Ireland ? To whom, lastly, could I more 
fitly dedicate it, than to you, who so deeply 



DEDICATORY LETTER. 7 

sympathized with me when I was prevented, in 
the visit which I was obliged to undertake, two 
years ago, to England, for the restoration of my 
shattered health — from urging upon the mem- 
bers of the church at home, the need which 
there is of some larger provision for the accom- 
modation of the poor protestant emigrant, with 
the means of protestant worship in the capital 
of the island, — and who are now so deeply con- 
cerned at witnessing the same want, that you 
have resolved to forego, for a time, all the 
comforts of your home, — to rend yourself from 
the sphere of your interesting duties here, and 
to expose yourself to the discomforts of a voyage 
across the Atlantic, at this most inclement sea- 
son, that you may superintend the urgent appeal 
which I am about to make from hence, before 
it be too late, through the public press in England, 
for aid in the erection of the new church, which, 
after having painfully witnessed the want of it 
for more than five years, I feel it, at length, my 



8 DEDICATORY LETTER. 

imperative duty to undertake, in Faith, for the 
protestants of St. John's, who, to a greater 
number than 3,000, are without any means 
whatever of assembling to worship God, after 
the manner of their fathers ? 

May God prosper you, and grant that we 
may yet have the satisfaction of beholding the 
answer to our many prayers, and of witnessing 
the meetings of a consistent christian assembly, 
in this House which we are so anxious to see 
dedicated to CHRIST, and consecrated for ever, 
for the pure services of the protestant episcopal 
church ; which may be a blessing to generations, 
when we may have gone to give an account of 
our labours. 

I am, my dear wife, 
and dearest Fellow-worker in the 
Missionary Field, 
ever most affectionately your's, 
Edward Wix. 



SIX MONTHS 

OF A 

NEWFOUNDLAND MISSIONARY'S 
JOURNAL. 



February, 1835. 

As the travelling over the snow in Newfoundland 
is less difficult in the month of March, than 
walking overland is at any other season of the 
year, I had long had an intention of commencing 
a visitation of the southern and western shores 
of the island, in the early part of that month; 
and, for this purpose, had made an appoint- 
ment with a guide, who lives in Trinity Bay, 
that he should come across at that time to be 
my pilot through the country. His recom- 
mendation to me was the fact of his having 
lived, some time back, four years with the 
Micmac Indians, — a probation which must have 
given him, I conceived, some acquaintance 
with the mode of travelling in this untractable 



10 CONCEPTION BAY. 

island. He came to St. John's, however, in 
February. The season was more than usually 
advanced ; and a greater quantity of snow 
having fallen than had been remembered for 
twenty years, the travelling was more easy than 
it commonly is in the winter : he had no diffi- 
culty, therefore, in inducing me to start with 
him immediately. This I did on the afternoon of 

Tuesday, 17,— Being driven in a sulky 
sleigh* as far as the new road to Topsail 
Beech, upon the commencement of which the 
Legislature have lately expended a small sum. 
I then proceeded with my knapsack, in which 
were 141bs. weight, (to which my guide had 
restricted me,) to the south shore of Conception 
Bay. For some distance we missed our way, 
but as we could ascertain the points of the 
compass by observing the inclination of the 
topmast branches of the juniper* or larch-trees, 
we regained our path some time after dark ; and 
by a slippery wood-path, on which we had 
many falls, we reached the south shore of 
Conception Bay, and the house of Miller, a 

* A " sulky sleigh " takes two persons, in seats, one 
behind the other, and is drawn by a horse. 

* The juniper, or larch, always points to the east. 



CONCEPTION BAY. 11 

respectable planter, by ten, p. m. The men of 
the family had retired to bed, after the fatigue of 
their day's labour in the woods, before I reached 
the house : I assembled the females of the family, 
however, and read and explained a chapter of the 
Bible, and offered up prayers with them before I 
retired to bed ; and the next morning, 

Wednesday, 18. — The men, before their 
work, joined us in the same employment. 
After this, I started in the snow for Mr. W. 
Smith's, passing a building which is erecting 
as a place of worship for the members of the 
Protestant episcopal communion on this shore. 
There I met the Rev. Thomas Martin Wood, 
who, in addition to his usual labours at Petty 
Harbour, pays monthly visits to the people of 
his old charge upon this south shore of Con- 
ception Bay, and again at Pouch Cove, near 
Cape Francis. After attending and assisting at 
a marriage which he was solemnizing, I crossed 
through the " slob ice," which was very thick in 
Conception Bay, to Port de Grave, four leagues, 
in three hours. This is the centre of the mission 
of the Reverend Charles Blackman. One of 
his circuit churches, that of St. Mark's Church, 



12 SEVERITY OF CLIMATE. 

at Bare Need, requires enlarging. I had been 
more fortunate in my passage across the bav 
than three young men of St. John's, who 
undertook it on the same day with myself, in 
another boat : they were obliged to leave it 
at a by-place along the shore, after it had been 
fixed several hours in the ice. I was confined a 
day at Mr. Blackman's hospitable house, by a 
snow-storm, but, on the morning of 

Friday, 20. — We took a heavy mallet, with 
a long handle, which the people call an ice- 
pounder, and escaped some hours of very labo- 
rious walking, by crossing in a boat to Bay 
Roberts. I regretted to find that Mr. Joyce, an 
exceedingly kind friend to the church and clergy, 
whom I had found here on former visits, had 
paid the debt of nature. Mr. Blackman had 
been engaged to attend a funeral at Bay Roberts 
yesterday; but the storm had made all close 
prisoners to their houses. It may give some 
idea of the difficulty of communication in the 
winter, even in the neighbourhood of St. John's, 
if I state here that gentlemen at Port de Grave 
had not seen a St. John's newspaper for a 
month, when I arrived amongst them; and that 



TRINITY BAY. 13 

in Trinity Bay,* I found that the sum of forty 
shillings had been, on a late occasion, demanded, 
and twenty-five shillings actually paid, for the 
casual conveyance of a single letter, overland, 
by one of the cross-country guides. I found 
that Ridout, a respectable young man, who had 
been used to keep a congregation together upon 
the south shore of Conception Bay, had died 
last spring, from the exertion and exposure 
consequent on going round the head of the bay at 

that inclement season on foot ; and Hodge, 

the packet-man of Killigrews, was just recover- 
ing from a most severe cold caught a few days 
before, from his having been washed overboard 
in a gale. The Reverend John Burt, the Pro- 
testant episcopal missionary at St. Paul's, Har- 
bour Grace, was dangerously ill, and I wished 
much to go to see him; but as the Reverend 
William Nisbett, of St. Mary's Church, Heart's 
Content, Trinity Bay, was with him, assisting 
him in his duties, I did not delay my journey to 
visit him. Mr. Blackman kindly accompanied 
me to Spaniard's Bay Beech. Here my guide 
and I struck into the woods at eleven, a. m., 

* Port de Grave is 2:7 miles distant from St. John's, and 
Trinity Bay 67 miles. 



14 DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING. 

and crossed the neck which divides Conception 
from Trinity Bay. I broke into the ice of one 
brook on my way, and by half-past seven, p.m. 
reached the house of Mr. Charles Nieuhook, 
jun., of New Harbour, a late worthy parishioner 
of the Reverend William Bullock, at St. Paul's 
Church, Trinity, whose father is of French 
Huguenot extraction. The distance is not more 
than fifteen miles by my compass, but the 
necessarily circuitous course which we were 
obliged to take to avoid a steep hill in one 
direction, a running brook, or a thick wood, in 
another, made it at least twenty. The distance 
which persons, liable to serve on petty juries, 
may be obliged to travel that they may meet the 
circuit judges in this island, is, from these cir- 
cumstances, not very easily defined. I have 
met with places in Fortune Bay, two or three 
miles only from each other, to visit which by 
land in winter, it might be necessary to make a 
circuit of fifteen miles, to get round the deep 
precipitous chasms or "gulshes" and ravines 
which cross from the coast into the interior. 
'' Why, it is but seven miles, my friend, as the 
crow flies," observed a judge to a remonstrant 
petty juryman, who pleaded the difficulty and 



SERVICES AT NEW HARBOUR. 15 

the distance. — "That may be," replied he; 
" but as I cannot go as the crow goes, I make 
the distance fifteen or sixteen." 

Saturday, 21. — This day was spent in visiting 
the people of New Harbour, and the adjoining- 
settlement of Dildo Cove, with Charles Elford, 
the lay-reader, who has, for some years, been 
employed under the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel. The church of St. George's, 
New Harbour, which was opened for Divine 
service in 1815, is neat, and in a very pic- 
turesque situation. It had been decently painted 
last summer, through Mr. Bullock's exertions. 
I gave notice of my intention of administering 
the holy communion in it on 

Sunday, 12. (Sexagesima Sunday.) — There 
were fourteen communicants after morning ser- 
vice at church, and I also administered the same 
sacrament to an aged person, a man of seventy- 
seven, in his own house, who remembered the 
French being in Trinity Bay in 1766. I held 
two full services, baptized two children at church, 
and one in private. As there was no stove in 
the church which could be lighted, and the 



16 SAMUEL PRETTY. 

weather was exceedingly cold, we suffered much 
during the service. After the two services I 
walked to Dildo Cove, by a church-path made 
by the people, which is very creditable to the 
devotional feeling of the settlers. Here the 
weather detained me at the house of Samuel 
Pretty, a respectable old planter. It was de- 
lightful to hear this old churchman contrast, 
with gratitude, the spiritual condition of the 
people in this part of the island now, with 
what it was when he first came out from Chard, 
in Somersetshire, sixty years ago : — " It is bad 
enough, now, sir; but then, twelve months 
and twelve months would pass without our 
hearing a word of a book, or any talk about a 
church." New Harbour and Dildo Cove, are 
places which present fine scenery to the admirer 
of nature ; yet I learned that, before Mr. 
Pretty came thither, they had been the scenes of 
some very savage murders, into which, such was 
the imperfect state of the magistracy of New- 
foundland at that period, no inquiry what- 
ever was made. Indeed, in some parts of the 
island which I have visited, infanticide, and 
violence terminating in death, w^ould scarcely 
create inquiry now. While I was there, New 



NEW HARBOUR. 17 

Harbour was the scenes of a sad drunken revel 
at a Roman Catholic funeral and wake. A 
wolf had been shot in this neighbourhood a 
short time before my visit. Also a large species 
of fish, called the horse mackarel, resembling 
that fish in every particular, but ten feet in 
length, had been killed here last summer, by a 
girl with a " pew," or fork used for throwing 
fish from the boats on to the " stages." This 
horse-mackarel, I learned afterwards, is not 
uncommon in other parts of the island. Several 
old Bedlamer seals had been already killed 
here, which, with the sea-birds which v/ere now 
very numerous, supplied the inhabitants with 
very acceptable provisions after the scarcity of 
a long unbroken winter. 

Wednesday, 25. — Having read and prayed 
with the inhabitants, and visited the sick, and 
made my residence as useful as I could to the 
people during my detention, I was up on Wednes- 
day at two A. M., and before six a. m., before the 
first dawn of light, made a more successful 
attempt than we made yesterday morning, to 
start from Andrew's Cove. The snow- path was 
stained with the blood of Bedlamer seals, which 



18 CHAPEL ARM. 

had been hauled over it. We had plenty of 
work for the ice-pounder in this cove and in the 
bay, as it was full of a species of ice, signifi- 
cantly called by the people, " swish-ice," 
which, when struck with the oar, makes a sound 
similar to that of straw when thrashed with a 
stick. . By 9^ o'clock we reached Chapel Arm, 
where, and at Little Gut in its neighbourhood, 
were about seventy souls, chiefly from New 
Harbour, for winter's work. Assembled two 
dozen people, all who had not gone into the 
woods for their work before our arrival, for full 
service, at the tilt of William Pollett. As we 
passed a point in our boat, I got sight of a 
black fox close to the water's edge, and was 
informed by the people, that I might expect 
shortly to see an otter, which I soon did, and 
on going to the spot, found several holes 
which the otter had made on the slob-ice when 
diving for fish, which the fox, at this period of 
scarcity of other provisions, would monopolize 
on his bringing it up, or share with him. The 
otter and the fox, consequently, at this season, 
are generally to be found very near each other. 
I had a cliff pointed out to me at Norman's 
Cove, not far from hence, a part of which, from 



LONG HARBOUR. 19 

its losing the power of cohesion (no uncommon 
event here after oar long winter), had fallen 
down a few springs since, and had buried 
several men, friends of my present guides, in its 
fall. The " barber," a vapour so called from 
its cutting qualities, was distinctly visible upon 
the water this morning. It arises, I believe, 
from the air's being colder than the water. I 
was glad, on the approach of day, to turn myself 
towards the sun, which rose most brilliantly 
this cold morning. No description can convey 
an idea of the beauty of the overfalling stalac- 
tites of ice, some white through, some transpa- 
rent, which hung down from the rugged cliffs on 
the side of this fine arm of the sea, till they 
nearly touched the water. 

. The unremitting attention, and the not un- 
frequent visits of the Rev. William Bullock, of 
Trinity, and of his assistant upon the south 
shore of the bay, the Rev. William Nesbitt, left 
me no children, beyond mere infants, to baptize 
in this neighbourhood. Before one p. m. I was 
again upon my way, on foot through the v/oods, 
leaving the remarkable hill, called the Chapel 
Tolt, behind, and the Long Hill Deer country, 
on my left ; and by half-past five got over the 
c 2 



20 THE SILVER THAW. 

crusted snow of Long Harbour, in Placentia 
Bay. The country at this time presented an 
appearance quite different from that produced 
by the vegetation when affected by a moistness of 
the atmosphere which is afterwards operated upon 
by sudden frosts, and is improperly denominated 
here, a silver thaw. The present appearance 
was even more beautiful, although the former 
cannot but be much admired. The under cur- 
rent of air had been sufficiently cold to freeze 
rain upon its reaching the earth, or alighting 
upon any exposed vegetable object, although 
the upper media, through which it had passed, 
permitted it still to fall as rain : as soon as this 
transparent liquid had alighted upon a branch 
of evergreen, or on a blade of grass, which pro- 
jected above the snow, it had congealed ; giving, 
through its transparent covering, a brighter 
tint to every colour of the objects which it 
enveloped. As the rain had continued to 
fall very fast for several hours while the lower 
air was in this state, this bright incrustation 
had collected on every object, even on those 
which were most minute, and offered the least 
firm support to such a weighty girdle, to the 
depth of at least an inch. The splendour of 



J 



THE SILVER THAW. 21 

the spectacle which was presented by woods, 
shrubs, and under-brush, thus brilliantly illu- 
minated in a morning of unclouded sunshine, 
was greater than any effort of art could come 
near to imitate. It left all the spectacles of 
scenic illusion, or the imaginative creations of 
fairy descriptions, far, far behind the reality of 
the natural phenomenon, which, though it was 
calculated most surely to fix the gaze of ad- 
miring crowds, only called forth now the grate- 
ful admiration of one fond admirer of the gospel 
of nature. Yet this profusion of sparkling 
beauty was not lost : — " O ye frost and cold ! 
O ye ice and snow ! bless ye the Lord ; praise 
him and magnify him for ever I" 

Every hole and corner in the cabin which I 
first visited in Placentia Bay, that was not 
taken up by the human inmates, being occupied 
by pigs, ducks, fowls, sheep, or dogs, I was glad 
to find a more roomy and a cleaner retreat in 
another, tilt ; here, though the door did not close 
by at least a foot, to prevent the inconvenience 
of smoke, which is almost universal in these 
winter houses, I sat upon a chest until dawn. 
The poor widower, who was my host, spoke of 
his deceased wife with deep affection : the 



22 ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

anxiety, too, which he showed to bring up his 
children well by catechising them, and hearing 
them repeat their prayers before they retired to 
the single bed which served for the entire family 
of eight, was very creditable. Although these 
services, which I begged my presence might 
not be permitted to interrupt, were mixed with 
much which I deem error, yet I could not but 
wish that many a careless protestant could have 
seen this pious Romanist, and been led to 
imitate so praiseworthy an attention to the re- 
ligious interests of his children. The winter 
settlers at Long Harbour are chiefly of Irish 
extraction, from Ram Islands, in Placentia 
Bay. I heard in the evening, that of three 
Englishmen who had been for years settled 
among them, one alone, a native of Greenwich, 
had not turned to the Romish faith. I went, 
therefore, to visit him on the morning of 

Thursday^ 26. — At his tilt, over a frozen 
pond or lake, about two miles from the harbour. 
When I reached his comfortless tilt, of which 
there was no part, except the excavated door- 
way, and the top of the chimney visible above 
the snow, I found he was from home. He had 



ENTERTAINED BY J. G. 23 

heard the preceding evening of the arrival in the 
settlement of a clergyman of his church, and 
attempted to cross the ice of the harbour after 
dark to have some conversation with me ; had 
broken through the ice in the attempt, and had 
in consequence of his wet condition, slept at 
a tilt in the harbour, which I had passed at day- 
break. I returned thither, and found him at 
the house of J. D. of Arundel, one of the Eng- 
lishmen who had turned Papist ; he would not, 
however, permit me to go back again for some 
private conversation to poor J. G.'s tilt, until I 
had promised to accompany J. G. back to 
breakfast, when he gave me a very hospitable 
entertainment. On conversing with J. G. I 
found that he had been twenty-one years in the 
country, and was still pennyless, the poor ser- 
vant of the other Englishman, H. M., from 
Redcliffe, who was scarcely less poor than him- 
self. His fondness for ardent spirits, he in- 
formed me, had kept him thus poor, and he 
could trace to this source all his lapses, and all 
his misfortunes. He assured me in our con- 
versation that he had foresworn the further use 
of spirits. I told him of a strength greater 
than his own ; this I entreated him to implore. 



24 THE USE OF ARDENT SPIRITS. 

He was much affected by a prayer in which I 
proposed he should join me in his tilt : he kept 
a standing posture when I commenced, but the 
poor fellow soon sunk upon his knees, and, 
before the conclusion of my prayer on his behalf, 
he was weeping like a child. It will give some 
idea of the prevailing use of spirits in this 
island, and of the consequent discouragement 
which the minister is doomed to experience, if I 
mention that notwithstanding all which I had said 
against the use of this intoxicating stimulant, in 
all which he had heartily acquiesced, and bring- 
ing the test of his own melancholy experience, 
had declared voluntarily, that he had left it off", 
he yet offered to myself, on my rising from my 
knees, what is called " a morning," from a 
little keg, which he drew from under his straw 
bed ; and, on my reminding him, when about 
to help himself, that he had engaged to break 
off" this habit, he excused himself by saying he 
had made a reservation for the use of the re- 
maining contents of that keg. I was reminded of 
Jeremiah xiii. 23. I promised the poor fellow a 
prayer-book, which he was most anxious to pos- 
sess ; a few other suitable books shall accompany 
it, and I pray, though almost against hope, that 



POOLE. 25 

he may be assisted to keep his resolution. A 
cock crowing during the preceding night, was 
said, by an old woman in the company, to por- 
tend rain : I found the next day, as I subse- 
quently did on many other occasions during my 
present trip, that this augury was quite correct. 
We were put across Long Harbour arm, below 
the ice, in a punt, and walked from the quay, a 
point in the woods, through some brushwood, 
and over barrens, to Ship Harbour Point, oppo- 
site to Little Placentia. Here a storm of snow 
and wind, followed by rain, which prevented my 
proceeding by land or by water, detained me till 

Monday, March 2. — There is not so much 
'* slob-ice " during the winter in Placentia and 
St. Mary's bays, as in the northern bays. At 
this time last year, however, (1834) persons 
might walk from this side of Placentia Bay 
direct to Burin, which is at least twenty-four 
leagues across the open bay on the firm ice. 
As I had sent my man by land to Placentia to 
give notice of my being so near, Mr. Tucker, of 
the firm of Penny and Neve, of Poole, took 
advantage of a lull in the wind, and kindly 
sent a boat for me, which landed me at his 



26 GREAT PLACENTIA. 

wharf in the afternoon. Here I was greatly 
indebted to Mrs. Tucker for much humane 
attention, and luxuriated in a comfortable bed 
for the first time since I had left New Harbour, 
Trinity Bay, on the 25th ult. 

Tuesday, 3. — Went partly in a sleigh, and 
partly on foot, by the Martise Reach, nine 
miles, to Great Placentia. While Newfound- 
land belonged to the French, this place was the 
seat of government. Within the memory of 
several of the present inhabitants, Placentia was 
a garrison town of our own, and there are still 
the remains of bomb-proof batteries in tolerable 
repair, faced with Portland stone. I assembled 
nine persons, the small remnant of our commu- 
nion, in the old church, which, within the 
memory of many living, used to be completely 
filled by the garrison and numerous protestant 
inhabitants, under the ministry of the Reverend 
Walter Harris, and Reverend John Evans, the 
successive protestant episcopal Missionaries. 
There is here a valuable service of communion 
plate, which bears an inscription, notifying, that 
it was given by his Royal Highness Prince 
William Henry, in 1787. There are also, a 



O. F. SWEETMA^T, ESQ. 27 

splendid folio prayer-book and bible, and a new 
version of the Psalms, which were presented to 
the church in 1790, by Thomas Saunders, Esq., 
the founder of the present mercantile house of 
O. F. Sweetman, Esq., a member of our New- 
foundland House of Assembly. He is a Roman 
catholic, but most hospitably invited me to his 
house, and entertained me, although he was 
very busily engaged in sending out his sealing 
vessels to the ice, and was, besides, an invalid ; 
and so good a feeling towards the church exists 
generally in this part of Newfoundland, that an 
aged widow lady, a Roman catholic, to whom, 
in conversing respecting the communion plate, 
I expressed the wish that it could be used 
monthly, and the books each week, responded 
evidently from the heart, with the wish that it 
could be so. It should be observed, in justice 
to the Roman catholics of this bay, that they 
are of a character very different from that of 
the more recent Irish settlers in the vicinity 
of St. John's, who, being misled by a newly- 
imported priesthood, who have more of the 
character of political partizans than of re- 
ligious or moral instructors, have by their 
licentious and cruel acts rendered our journals 



28 ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

of late years more like the annals of disturbed 
districts in the sister kingdom, than of a loyal 
and orderly North American colony. The hos- 
pitality with which I was received by the settlers 
of that communion in this bay carried me 
pleasantly back, in recollection, to the de- 
scription given by our Missionary Anspach, of 
his own reception in Conception Bay. " The 
clergyman of the established church not only 
could go in the greatest security through any 
part of the district, but his visits were received 
with evident marks of satisfaction; his call for 
refreshment at any house was acknowledged 
as an honour ; and that dwelling was considered 
still more highly honoured where he con- 
descended to fix himself for the night in the 
course of his clerical visitations. His comforts 
were attended to with the most cordial and 
anxious care, even by the wildest Irishman, or 
the mostbigoted Roman Catholics." (Anspach's 
Newfoundland, p. 240.) I have already stated 
the pleasure with which I had witnessed the 
anxiety of a Roman catholic parent to bring up 
his children in that which, according to his 
view, was the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord ; I may, therefore, without being suspected 



. ^ ... ^T^H i Ml ii>i 



PLACENTIA. 29 

of a wish to misrepresent the general conduct of 
the members of this body, express the concern 
which I felt, at seeing in this and some other 
districts, the playing of cards and games of 
chance upon the Lord's Day. In St. John's, 
their dancing-houses are full on the evening of 
the Lord's Day. The poor fellow did not know^ 
the meaning of the terras he was using; — but 
one of this communion made me smile, when, 
to recommend himself to me, as distinguished 
from a strict R.omanist, he told me he was a 
" Liberal," — and then, as though he had not 
gone far enough, he corrected himself, and 
said, " I am a Latitudinarian, sir, I mean." 
He might have added, too, " a hard drinker;" 
but I feel too much indebted to him for his 
hearty kindness, to subject him to ecclesiastical 
censure for his volunteer deprecations of an 
intolerant creed, or for the last named besetting 
sin. Placentia has been visited, since the 
removal of a regular Missionary from the station^ 
by the Bishop of Nova Scotia, and by Reverend 
Messrs. Bullock, Burt, Robertson, Laugherne, 
and Pering; — yet so long has the church been 
shut up, that this vvas the first occasion on 
which the roval donor of the communion service 



30 PLACENTIA. 

had been prayed for here in public liturgy, as 
King. There is in the church-yard of this place 
a broken tomb-stone, with a French inscription, 
bearing the date 1690. 

As there was a rapid tide down the S. E. and 
N. E. guts, and the wind was piercingly cold 
from the N. E., our passage over these streams 
on our return was far from agreeable, and it was 
some time before we could by quick walking 
recover ourselves from our chill. Within a few 
days of my reaching Placentia, a messenger 
arrived who had crossed through the interior 
overland direct from St. John's, since I left 
it. A road, which is much needed, is projected 
from St. John's to this place. This messenger 
brought the distressing intelligence, that Mr. 
Hervey, an estimable young man, the junior 
partner in the house of Messrs. Robinson, 
Brooking, Garland, & Co., at St. John's, had 
died within the last few days, after a very short 
illness. I had left him extremely ill from a cold 
caught in going to St. Bartholomew's Church, 
Portugal Cove, on the last Sunday but one on 
which I had officiated there before my departure : 
the weather, on that day (February 8), having 
varied eighteen degrees, as will be seen by the 



TILLY COVE. 31 

meteorological table annexed to this Journal, 
was most trying to the constitution of those 
exposed to it. 

Wednesday ,4. (Ash-Wed.) — Assembled a very 
attentive congregation of twenty-one, in the net- 
menders' room on Mr. Tucker's wharf. I must 
record the pleasure with which I heard here, as 
I did, indeed, in many parts of Placentia Bay 
afterwards, most grateful mention made of the 
labours of Mr. William Walker, who had been, 
for some time, stationed at Little Placentia, in one 
of the schools of the Newfoundland and British 
North America School Society — a society which 
is doing much for the scriptural education of the 
youth of this island. 

In the afternoon of March 4, Mr. Tucker 
manned a boat for me, in which I went to Bald 
Head, past St. Croix Bay. Thence I went, 
after walking a little distance in the snow, in a 
punt of Joseph Dick's, past Money's Cove and 
Corben's Head to Tilley Cove, six leagues, 
where the family of his respectable father, 
Christopher Dicks, amounting to twelve, formed 
an attentive congregation. Here, as I did at 
several other places during the season of Lent, 



32 FAMISH GUT. 

I assumed a licence as my own ordinary, and 
used the Commination Service, afterwards ex- 
plaining it to the hearers familiarly in the place 
of a sermon. 

Thursday, 5. — Was up before day-lig-ht, and 
after fall service, administered the holy commu- 
nion to this respectable old planter, who had 
for many years been desiring- such an oppor- 
tunity. A snow-storm prevented my proceeding 
to-day to Harbour Beaufit, upon Long Island, 
where I was very anxious to visit a family whom 
I had known at Petty Harbour, near St. John's. 
I did not allow it, however, to prevent my 
walking by Red Cove and Back Cove to Famish 
Gut, which I had reached by ten, a. m., and 
assembled nine adults, besides children, at the 
winter house of Thomas Upshore, where I held 
full service, and baptized two children. It was 
providential that a man, who lived some two 
miles from his summer house, in the interior, in 
a spot which it would have been most difficult, 
nay, quite impracticable, to have found, in the 
untracked snow, which was falling fast at the 
time, should have come out for some family 
supplies to his summer house, just as I reached 



TRINITY BAY. 33 

the harbour. He was delighted at the encounter, 
and was rejoiced at the opportunity of intro- 
ducing to the little settlement a minister of his 
church. By one, p. m., as the weather cleared 
up, I left this place, and took the ice upon a 
level lead of ponds, expecting to find my way 
to the adjoining settlement of Pinch Gut. There 
I learned were some persons who had recently 
settled from the west of England, and I wished 
much to visit them; but we missed our point, 
and were benighted, and as, through the gross 
negligence of my guide, we had proceeded 
without a hatchet, our situation was one of 
danger, the night being extremely cold. On 
coming out, however, after dark, to the salt water, 
I discovered upon the snow, by the land-wash, a 
gunner's track. This led us by nine, p.m., much 
fatigued, to a house, which we found, contrary to 
our expectations, to be at Eig Chance Cove, in 
Trinity Bay. Here I heard, to my comfort, that 
one Kelly, a regular pilot, who had last winter 
walked round the head of Placentia Bay, the 
Toute on which I now was, and had received 18/. 
for his journey, declared that he would not 
undertake such a trip again for 50/. My dog 
howled, as I walked to-day, from fatigue : and, 

D 



34 STOCK COVE. 

whenever I stopped to look about me, or set my 
compass, he would scratch about and make 
himself a bed for a few minutes' repose in the 
soft snow. 

Friday, 6. — Up by seven, a.m. Assem.bled 
twenty-four persons to full service. As not one 
in this settlement could read, I was requested to 
read a letter containing intelligence, of the most 
interesting kind, of which the family had been 
in ignorance, although they had had it by them 
for weeks. In many similar settlements, I was 
engaged in writing letters for the people to 
relatives who had been settled, some ten, some 
twenty years, in other parts of the island, and 
with whom they had been unable to hold any 
communication since their original settlement in 
the country, or, at least, since their dispersion. 
At eight, A.M., started through the " young ice" 
in a new punt, which was stained with blood 
from a recent freight of fresh-killed seals ; 
passed Bentham, Master's Head, and Ram's 
Head, to Stock Cove, which I reached at ten. 
After some refreshment, engaged at half-past 
two, P.M. in a very laborious walk over the 
country, by Stock Cove Deer-look-out, to 



BAY bull's arm. 35. 

Frenchman's Island, where I took the ice of 
Bay Bull's Arm. At the head of this arm, 
I found four families in winter tilts. I as- 
sembled fifteen persons for full service, by the 
light of a piece of ignited seal's fat, placed in a 
scollop shell, which served for the lamp of our 
humble sanctuary in the woods. I made ac- 
quaintance here, too, for the first time, with 
a decoction of the tops of the spruce branches, 
to which I afterwards became much accustomed? 
as a substitute for tea, and which, from experi- 
ence, I can pronounce to be very salutary and 
bracing, though not so palatable, as the bever- 
age supplied by the Honourable East India 
Company. A man (Sowards) whom I had met 
at Stoke Cove in the morning, had last summer 
gone round in an open fishing punt, from Come- 
by-Chance, at the bottom of Placentia Bay, 
accompanied only by a small boy of fifteen, 
along-shore and outside of St. John's, to this 
place, a distance of 142 leagues by water, 
although the distance between the two places is 
only one league by land. He was changing his 
residence from one Bay to the other, and not 
finding a purchaser for his punt, he had gone 
round with it. From the top of Sainter's Hill, 
D 2 



36 sainter's hill. 

a conspicuous object in this neighbourhood, the 
seven bays of Despair, Fortune, St. Mary^ 
Trinity, Bonavista, Conception, and Placentiay 
may be seen at one time. Here I slept in a tilt ; 
and starting by half-past six, next morning, in 
less than an hour had crossed the swamp and 
neck of land which at this part divided Placentia 
from Trinity Bay, having now crossed the 
dividing neck of land at three different places. 
On this path the " ways," or cross-beams, over 
which the French when they held Placentia, 
were in the habit of drawing their boats from 
one bay to the other, are still to be seen ; 
although, as they were at this time covered with 
snow, I had not a view of them. After an 
unexpected incursion of this kind, they had 
once burned, in the memory of an old person 
who related the fact to me, an English brig 
which was lying in Bay Bull's Arm ; and it was 
this circumstance which gave its name to the 
point which is called Frenchman's Island, men- 
tioned above. — After walking about a mile down 
Come-by-Chance River, we came to some win- 
ter tilts, in one of which I assembled seventeen 
for full service, baptized a child, and churched 
its mother, in our little congregation. On the 



COME-BY-CHANCE RIVER. 37 

banks of this Come-by-Chance River, ruins of 
buildings, iron bolts and nails, are found ; relics 
of former structures and cannon-balls are also 
frequently picked up, as though there had been 
formerly some engagement, if not a fort, in this 
neighbourhood. The people are very laborious 
in this part of Placentia Bay, and live very hard : 
from the time at which they begin to catch fish, 
which is generally in April, until near Christ- 
mas, they scarcely sleep a whole night toge- 
ther in bed, except on Sunday night. From 
their poverty, too, they are constrained to part 
with their fish to the supplying merchant in a 
" green " state, by which, I was informed, that 
they are considerable losers, as three " quintals " 
on an average are thus taken for one. I was 
much struck here with the homely, but touch- 
ing remark of one R. W., in whose house I had 
officiated :— " Ah ! sir; if any of us be sick or 
sore, there is no one near to visit us, or to care 
for our souls." 

Started at half-past ten, a. m., and before 
twelve had reached Emberley's, having mounted 
a precipice which was somewhat alarming, Whit- 
tle's Cove Head. Twelve wolves had very lately 
been seen in one company in this neighbour' 



^ 



as 



SOUND ISLAND. 



hood. Here we mended up a leaky punt, and 
took advantage of a mild day, which reminded 
me of the Indian summer in Nova Scotia, to go 
to Sound Island. We started at half-past 
twelve, were unceasing in our exercise at baling 
out the water, and by ten minutes after three, 
reached in safety Betty's Hole, Sound Island, a 
most picturesque nook, within view of the fine 
hills which are known as Powder-horn Hill, at 
the bottom of Placentia Bay, and Sainter's Hill, 
at the head of that of Trinity. 

Walked a short mile to Mr. Hollett's, a most 
respectable planter at New Town. Finding that 
many of the people were at Piper's Hole, nine 
miles up a river, at their winter's work, I deter- 
mined to walk up to them upon the ice, and 
devote to them the morning of the following 
day, Sunday ; appointing divine service at 
Sound Island in the afternoon, on my return. I 
reached the tilt of Giles, a worthy Somersetshire 
man, by nine, p. m., where I slept, after having 
had prayers with his little household. 

Sunday y 8. — Walked to Salmon Hole, at the 
very top of Piper's Hole, (about a mile and a 
half,) at day-break, and held an early service 



MR. HOLLETT. 39 

in the house of John HoUett, jun., to eighteen 
persons. By twenty minutes to nine, a. m., I 
was on my way back to Sound Island, where I 
found a congregation of thirty, at the elder Mr. 
Hollett's house, assembled to meet me at two, 
p. M. I baptized one child in full service. 
The style of singing here, as well as at Piper's 
Hole, gratified me much. I read the prayers 
from a fine 8vo. prayer-book, of the " Prayer 
Book and Homily Society," presented to old 
Mr. Hollett, by the Reverend Charles Norman, 
Manningtree, Essex, April, 1834. This gene- 
rous individual, Hollet has never seen ; but his 
name had been mentioned to Mr. Norman, by a 
servant, whose brother, a fisherman in New- 
foundland, had been in the habit of attending 
Mr. Hollett's reading of the church service on 
the Lord's Day, in his house on Sound Island ; 
and Mr. Hollett has, for some time, received 
from him a packet of books each year. These, 
he is humbly endeavouring to make instrumental 
to the spiritual improvement of his neighbour- 
hood ; and his efforts, I should say, judging from 
the demeanour of the congregation, which I was 
gratified to meet at his house, — and their re- 
sponse, and the manner in which they join in 



40 WANT OF SCHOOLS. 

the psalmody, have been blessed by God's Holy 
Spirit. How would the missionary, and the 
intelligent member of the church, be strength- 
ened in a foreign land, if the friends of evan- 
gelical truth at home would more generally 
exhibit such a spirit as this unknown bene- 
factor, — and send us, in larger quantities, these 
requisite materials, with which we may enlighten 
the ignorant, and comfort the sorrowing, and 
train up the rising generation in the faith and 
fear of God ! Here, as at very many other 
places, I was painfully oppressed by receiving 
applications of the most earnest kind for schools, 
where, before the applications, I could see they 
were most needed : yet, alas ! I felt that I 
could hold out to the Christian parents, who 
were most anxious to secure Christian instruc- 
tion for their dear children, no promise what- 
ever, — no immediate hope of aid. 

Finding that the night was likely to be 
stormy, I started at four over Sound Island, and 
across the Tickle, upon the ice, to the Andrews's, 
Woody Island, about six miles, which I reached 
in two hours, just before the threatened storm 
came on. Read a chapter of the bible, and had 
prayers before retiring to rest. 



BARREN ISLAND. 41 

Monday^ 9. — The two Andrews's, my hosts, 
took different routes round the settlement, to 
prepare the people for my holding prayers at 
ten, A. M. Thirteen families reside in this neigh- 
bourhood. I had a congregation of twenty, 
churched a mother, and baptized her child in 
full service. Just as I was starting in an open 
boat for Barren Island, a young woman, who 
had waded, with difficulty, through the deep 
snow, which had been falling all night, arrived, 
to request me to baptize her infant child, and 
to church herself. Here, as at many places 
which I have visited, a request was made me 
that I would consecrate a piece of ground, 
which, in most settlements, is enclosed and set 
apart for a place of interment. I told the people 
that this ceremony of our church is reserved for 
our bishops ; but recommended their keeping it 
neatly enclosed ; and assured them that, in the 
event of his ever visiting this bay, it would 
then give satisfaction to our excellent diocesan, 
Bishop Inglis, to comply with this, their very 
proper desire. For the first time since leaving 
Conception Bay, we were able to use a sail to- 
day, and were put up to Barren Island in two 
hours. Here the inhabitants are principally 



42 MR. JOHN COSEXS. 

Romanists; but, as an Englishman, Robert 
Burt, who had died somewhat suddenly, was 
then lying unburied, I resolved to wait till to- 
morrow, that I might inter him. 

Tuesday, 10. — A congregation of thirty-five 
met in a large store, one hundred feet long, be- 
lono-ino- to Mr. John Cosens, which had been 
built by the late firm of Spurrier, and had been 
sold for a trifle. We had a fire similar to that 
on a ship's deck, in the centre of the store, to 
protect us from the weather, which was extremely 
cold, and, although there was no provision for 
the escape of the smoke, the building was so 
spacious, that we suffered little inconvenience. 
The bell which usually rings to call the people 
together for their meals, or work, was tolled by 
my direction. The psalms and lessons of the 
morning were evidently felt by the people to be 
very appropriate to the melancholy service, and 
the sermon, which I had put together for the 
occasion from Psalm 1. 22, 23, seemed to affect 
the hearers, — may I hope not without edifica- 
tion ? While I was thus engaged, Mr. John 
Cosens, who had been absent, returned, and 
heard with much satisfaction, of the very hospi- 



SCENES or POVERTY. 43 

table reception wliicli his " skipper" had given 
me on my arrival. 

Wednesday , 11. — He kindly took me, at nine, 
A. M., of the next day, in a large western boat, 
by the island of Merasheen, to the Isle of Valen, 
where he has an establishment, and a very 
pleasant neighbour in Mr. Isaac Moore, another 
merchant. In my visits to the different cabins, 
I was much shocked at the poverty of the 
people, which was greater here, than any which 
I had ever witnessed in Newfoundland. Some 
married females in one house were literally 
almost in a state of nudity ; their manifest want 
of cleanliness, however, made it seem probable, — 
as I was afterwards informed was the case, — 
that part of their poverty might be traced to 
mismanagement. It must be most distressing 
to any merchant, or other settler, who is him- 
self raised above poverty, and is possessed of 
human feeling, to live in a place where the 
improvidence of the people makes them so 
wretchedly dependent, for a greater part of the 
year, as the people are in this settlement. 
While I am arranging these notes to send to 
England, I have heard of the decease of one of 



44 SCENES OF POVERTY. 

the wretched females mentioned above. I had 
service in Mr. Cosens' house and a congregation 
of thirty-five, baptized one child, arid churched 
the mother ; and the next day, 

Thursday, 12. — Baptized three children at 
their home, the mothers being too plainly with- 
out sufficient clothing to permit their exposing 
themselves to the air at this inclement season ; 
returned thanks, with the mothers, for their 
preservation in child-bed, and held another full 
service to forty. One tilt was visited by me in 
this island, the dimensions of which were only 
twelve feet by ten, and I found living in it a 
man and his wife, — the master and mistress of 
the house, — two married daughters with their 
husbands and children, amounting, in all, to 
fifteen souls ! I found a fine old widow lady 
here who has forty grandchildren living : her 
feelings had been severely tried at the death of 
her husband, to whom she had been many years 
allied, and was fondly attached. She had, in 
early youth, been a Romanist, but from convic- 
tion had renounced the errors of that faith, and 
attached herself to the church of her husband. 
On her making the anxious inquiry of her hus- 



I 



DEATH-BED SCENE. 45 

band on his death-bed, " Whether he would 
like to turn ?" he, affixing a very different mean- 
ing to her affectionate inquiry, than that which 
merely implied his being turned in his bed, 
begged that the poor woman would go out of 
his sight, and not disturb his last moments, 
adding, " that he had occasionally before 
doubted the sincerity of her professed conver- 
sion, but he had rather have cherished the delu- 
sion to the last, than have been thus cruelly 
undeceived at such a moment !" 

Friday i 13. — Went off on a bitter cold morn- 
ing, in a bait skiff, two hours* sail to Clatters' 
Harbour, at the back of the Isle of Valen. The 
slob and swish ice becoming thicker, prevented 
our getting up the arm ; walked, in conse- 
quence, to the head of the north-east passage, 
by thickly wooded " gulshes," three miles or 
more ; thence across a neck of land to Chand- 
ler's Harbour in Paradise Sound, about one 
mile ; thence I went along the hills by the 
shore, towards the south-east bight, which I 
had hoped to reach by night. We got be- 
nighted, however ; the moon became obscured, 
and as a drift came on, with a drizzling snow 



46 NIGHT FIRES. 

and rain, we made a night fire. For feeding 
this, we felled in the course of the night, a suf- 
ficient quantity of spruce and birch to have 
made a most shady retreat in a space equal to 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, and there we waited for 
the dawn. This is a more accurate account of 
such a night, than it would be to record that we 
had slept in the woods ; for the traveller, lying 
on a few fir branches upon the snow, freezes on 
one side, while the blazing flame scorches him 
on the other. I did not, at this early period of 
my cruise, understand so well, as I afterwards 
did, the plan of making a fire in the woods ; and 
in my hurry to greet the welcome sight of a 
cheerful fire, by which I might break the fast 
which I had kept since seven in the morning, I 
had neglected the necessary preliminary of dig- 
ging out a hole in the eight feet of snow, which 
were on the ground. The immense fire which 
we kindled, for want of this precaution, con- 
tinued to melt down the snow, lower and lower 
by degrees, till, before the dawn of morning, I 
was left to the action of the piercing winds, on 
the top of a bank of snow, the fire being in a 
hole much below my level, and only benefiting 
me by its smoke, which threatened to blind, as 



RED COVE. 47 

well as to stifle me. I may mention, that the 
first tree, which I felled, nearly demolished my 
faithful dog which accompanied me, as it fell 
across the terrified creature's loins ; the soft 
newly-fallen snow, however, offered no resist- 
ance to his body, but sunk under his weight, so 
that he received no injury. 

Saturday, 14. — In the morning' started in 
the sleet and rain, and in a very wet condition 
from my last night's lair, to find the south-east 
bight, and was more successful in my search 
than the preceding evening. I was most hu- 
manely entertained by a Roman Catholic plan- 
ter, Handlin and his wife, at whose house I 
dried and warmed myself, and after breakfast, 
was put over the bight in a punt, whilst it was 
blowing very heavily, and afterwards proceeded 
on foot to the winter-house of Mr. William 
Cooke, (of Biddestone, England) at Red Cove. 
As Mrs. Cooke, much to my regret, had, on the 
first intimation of my arrival, walked nearly 
three miles to their summer residence at Adam's 
Island, in Paradise Harbour, to receive me 
there, I accompanied her husband to this place, 
where he has been settled eighteen years, and 



48 PUSHTHROUGH. 

has a fine establishment. Finding that Mrs. C, 
who is the mother of a very interesting family, 
(if not a native,) was formerly a resident of 
Liverpool, in Nova Scotia, to the inhabitants of 
which place I am warmly attached, it was de- 
lightful to me to have an opportunity of speak- 
ing of scenes and persons which will ever be 
dear to my memory. 

Sunday, 15. — Rose with lassitude; read 
prayers and a sermon to Mr. Cooke's family, his 
neighbours being all Romanists. 

Monday, 16. — Left Paradise Harbour at 
eight, A.M., in a punt. Passed Nonsuch Har- 
bour and Petit Forte without stopping, and got to 
Pushthrough, between Little and Great Gallows 
Harbour by eleven. Was reminded by an Irish 
servant in the boat of the approaching festival 
of St. Patrick, as he was exulting in alluding to 
the quantity of spirits which would be drunk 
before breakfast the next day, in Newfoundland, 
in honour of the patron saint of the Emerald 
Island. As there were no protestants residing 
where I left the boat, 1 pushed on, starting by 
the north-east brook, and walking till three p.m. 



BAY DE l'eAU. 49 

I came out in the same little harbour, about 
ten yards from the place we had started four 
hours before. I persevered, made a second 
trial, and threading our path through the thick 
woods, without the vestige of a track, got at 
length to the ice on Bay de I'Eau, beyond Little 
Harbour ; followed, upon the ice of the bay, 
nearly nine miles, and came to the winter- tilt of 
William Chick, of Oderin, by half-past eight, 
P.M. I had discovered this cabin by the 
" flankers," or bright sparks, which flew up his 
chimney to some height in the clear star-lit sky, 
from his brisk birch fire. As 1 had fully ex- 
pected to pass another night in the woods in 
my wearied and wet condition, I was most 
thankful to discover these welcome signs of our 
proximity to some human abode. None but 
those who have traversed unknown woods in the 
untracked snow, can conceive the joy with 
which the sight of the track of a human foot, 
or of a racket,* is welcomed, even though such 
tracks, being only of persons who have been 
" rummaging," or searching for fire-sticks of 

* Rackets are used for walking over the snow, as they 
throw the weight of the hody over a large space, and thus 
render persons less liable to sink. 
E 



50 chick's tilt. 

timber in the woods, may again and again have 
raised deceptive hopes, respecting their leading 
immediately to some habitation or settlement. 
Even the sight of a "whiting" in the woods, 
that is, of a tree stripped of its bark for the 
uses of the fishery, which tells of the place's 
having been visited, though in the preceding 
summer, or a year or two before, by the foot of 
man ; — the marks, even, of the axe, where tim- 
ber has, in former years, been cut and carried 
away, seem to remind the lone traveller of the 
link which binds him to the rest of his species. 
I lost no time, on my arrival at Chick's, in 
assembling fourteen persons, from his and the 
adjoining tilts, to full service ; and after some 
very seasonable refreshment, slept soundly, on 
a bed which my kind hostess had spread by the 
fire upon the floor for me. She begged me to 
send her some books, observing, '' I am fond of 
church books ; a neighbour of mine ' faults' the 
church-catechism in his talk, sir; but to my 
belief, though I am no scholar, there is not like 
to be a better." The women in Placentia Bay 
are very industrious and neat in their work. 
They plait bonnets and hats of the shavings of 
birch, cut very thin, like what I have seen in 



BAY DE l' ARGENT. 51 

England, made of the cuttings of stiflf paper. I 
was glad to procure a pair of " cuiFs," or mit- 
tens, made in this bay, of a kind of thick 
woollen or swan-skin : these, with ear-caps, which 
they also make and ornament very neatly, are 
most essential to the comfort of those who ven- 
ture on any out-of-door exercise or employ- 
ment in winter. I had undertaken to go, the 



Tuesday, 18, — to the island of Oderin ; but 
the wind being too wild, I started by land, 
at half-past nine, over the country, steering 
nearly north-west by my chart and compass, for 
the south shore of Fortune Bay. I was the less 
anxious to visit Burin or Fortune, as I learned 
that there were very worthy Wesleyan Mis- 
sionaries in these districts. I came out at 
Bay de I'Argent, by three p.m., down a rapid 
brook, which had a fall of water in it, and 
marks of a recent freshet in immense " clumpets" 
of ice, a yard and a half thick, which had been 
carried a hundred yards into the woods on each 
side, thirty feet above the usual channel of the 
brook, forcing down large trees, scraping the 
bark from the trunks of others, and bending the 
E 2 



52 SUFFERERS FROM FROST. 

smaller stems to its current. I could never have 
imagined, had I not seen such evidence, that 
the force of a casual fresh-water current could 
be so great. I do not notice the niimerous 
tracks of otters, beavers, foxes, deer, partridges, 
and hares, which I am passing every day, but I 
may notice here that the son of William Chick 
and another youth had lately killed fourteen 
deer, and that the families of Piper's Hole had 
killed forty head of deer within a fortnight. 

A man, Pitcher, formerly a servant at Bay 
de I'Argent, had, the preceding year, walked 
across to this place from Placentia Bay, and 
while the Fortune Bay people were in their win- 
ter tilts, at a distance from their summer resi- 
dences, had robbed their summer-houses, which 
were situated upon the shore. On his way 
back, he had been arrested by a storm, and was 
providentially found by some deer-hunters, in a 
frost-burnt state, or he must have perished. 
Robert Swiers, of Hants Harbour, Trinity Bay, 
who had been imprisoned in Harbour Grace 
gaol. Conception Bay, for stealing a cow, met 
his fate in a similar way last winter (I learned 
while I was in Trinity Bay), in attempting, after 
his release from confinement, to get across the 






FORTUNE BAY. 53 

country from Conception Bay to his home in 
Trinity Bay. 

I was fortunate enough to come out upon the 
shore in Fortune Bay, exactly where there were 
houses, and a very decent young man, B. L. and 
his wife, having only left their winter tilts that 
morning, had cleaned up their neat summer 
house, and lighted a good fire, as though for my 
reception. I sent round to his neighbours to 
give notice of my intention to hold divine ser- 
vice at his house the next morning, and was de- 
lighted to see the serious and intelligent manner 
in which the children were taught to say their 
grace before and after meat, and their morning 
and evening prayers. My eyes, which have 
been much tried by the glare of the sun upon 
the snow, and by the cutting winds abroad, are 
further tried within the houses by the quantity 
of smoke, or " cruel steam," as the people em- 
phatically and correctly designate it, with 
which every tilt is filled. The structure of the 
winter tilt, the chimney of which is of upright 
studs, stuffed or " stogged" between with moss, 
is so rude, that in most of them in which I offi- 
ciated the chimney has caught fire once, if not 
oftener, during the service. When a fire is 



64 TILTS TAKING FIRE. 

kept up, which is not unusual, all night long, it 
is necessary that some body should sit up, with a 
bucket of water at hand, to stay the progress of 
these frequent fires ; an old gun-barrel is often 
placed in the chimney corner, which is used as 
a syringe or diminutive fire-engine, to arrest the 
progress of these flames ; or masses of snow are 
placed on the top of the burning studs, which, as 
they melt down, extinguish the dangerous ele- 
ment. The chimneys of the summer houses in For- 
tune Bay are better fortified against the danger, 
being lined within all the way up with a coating 
of tin, which is found to last for several years. 

Wednesday, 18. — So much snow and drift 
during the night, and still falling, that the 
walk of yesterday would have been quite im- 
practicable to-day. A congregation of twelve 
adults assembled to full service ; four baptisms. 
At twelve started for Bay D'Este, which would 
have been a distance of four miles in a punt ; 
this conveyance, however, being unsafe, I was 
obliged to go by land, a distance often miles, by 
Little Barrisway, and Salmonier and Shagrock 
Pond, to which there is another path from the 
beach, beaten like a foot-road, and a beaver- 



BAY d'eSTE. 55 

house upon the pond. Some of our path was 
over most difficult crags, by the landwash ; and 
in one place we had to crawl upon our hands 
and knees, through a hole in a hollow rock ; in 
others we went under crags, from which heavy 
icicles were pendent, resembling some mimic 
Niagara, which had been caught and fixed by 
the frost at mid-fall. It snowed and drifted, 
and froze hard as at any time during the winter ; 
my sealskin cap, and the crape gauze veil, 
which I wore for the protection of my eyes, 
were stiffened with the frost : my gloves and 
handkerchief became masses of ice ; and, as it 
was impossible to get off my sealskin mockasins, 
which had worn out from walking over the icy 
crags, which cuts frozen leather or skin like a 
knife ; and consequently I could not change 
them, though I was provided with a second 
pair ; I was in more danger to-day than pro- 
bably at any other period of my journey, of 
being frost-burnt. Here I met I. W., an old 
man from Sturminster, in Dorset, who reads the 
church prayers to his neighbours on the Lord's 
Day, and begged of me to send him a supply of 
plain sermons, or, as he expressed it, " not too 
high learnt." " I have often dropped tears on 



56 GREAT FORCE OF 

Sunday," said he, " to think of the church at 
home, which I thought too little of when I was 
there ; and often I have felt that I would have 
given the heart out of my body, sir, to hear the 
church prayers on the Lord's Day." 

Full service. I endeavoured to remove here, 
and in other places, an unfavourable impression 
which some of the ignorant had conceived, and 
some mischievous and interested traders had en- 
couraged, respecting a supply of seed potatoes, 
which, during the last year, had been sent by 
the colonial government, for gratuitous distri- 
bution among the distressed inhabitants of this 
and the other bays of the island. The potatoes 
sent did not suffice for the supply of all who 
needed them, and those which respectable mer- 
chants imported for sale, or transported from 
St. John's, and sold from their own stores, were 
alleged to be part of the gratuitous supply fur- 
nished by Government. I saw here again some 
remarkable signs of the powers of a late freshet 
from the thawed snow. At Long Harbour, 
however, a brook, thus swollen, forced a passage 
quite through Pyramid's Island, which was 
mid-stream, and on which was a house with 
eight men in it ; and brought down stocks of 



THE FRESHETS, OV 

trees, of forty and fifty feet in length, and 
of proportionate thickness, Clumpets of ice, 
three feet in thickness, swept over the house in 
which the men were, who were obliged, poor 
fellows ! to sit astride upon the rafters, like 
fowls in a roost, to escape drowning till the fury 
of the freshet abated ; this force of the river by 
which they were invaded, and of the two side- 
streams, denying them all chance of earlier 
escape from the island. 

Thursday J 19. — Froze as hard as on any 
night during the winter. Baptized a child and 
churched the mother before leaving Bay d'Este 
for Shelter Point, where I proposed holding 
prayers, that an aged woman of eighty-six, a 
native of Placentia Bay, who had never seen 
any clergyman, might have the privilege of 
joining in common prayer, which she seemed to 
value much. Full service to eighteen, and one 
baptism. Started in a sailing punt, at one, 
P.M., passed Cape Mille on the south, and Grand 
le Pier on the north, by a very remarkable cliff, 
on the surface of which is a spot which exhibits 
a beautiful grass-green appearance, — to the set- 
tlement at the very bottom of Fortune Bay> 



58 JAMES MILES, AND 

(which resembles Tickle Harbour, in Trinity 
Bay, j twelve miles. Here, a mile and a half up 
the ice, I found James Miles, from Shaftsbury, 
Dorset, the father of the settlement. He had 
been fifty-six years in Newfoundland, and had 
never before seen a clergyman. He reads on 
Sundays to the surrounding families, which are 
chiefly from his own stock, although to his grief, 
some, having intermarried with Roman Catholics, 
have declined attendance on the service of our 
liturgy. I had full service here at eight, p.m., 
and baptized two of his children. Here, for the 
first time, I witnessed the inconvenience and the 
pain which those suffer who labour under what 
is called "snow blindness;" two of his sons, 
who had been deer-hunting, having come home 
affected with this painful visitation, which I was 
doomed shortly afterwards to experience myself. 
The thrifty people in this bay endure, perhaps, 
greater hardships and privations, than any in 
this trying island. They continue catching fish 
till Christmas, when the fish generally failing 
for a season, they avail themselves of this 
respite, to do their winter's work in making 
■ boats, &c. They begin fishing again, at the 
latest, by Lady-day. It is exceedingly deep 



HIS FAMILY. 



59 



water in which they fish, by which the labour is 
much increased. The fishing lines freeze as 
they draw them out of the water; after the first 
fish is caught, they throw them into the water 
coiled, that they may thaw in the sea. I have 
myself seen the fish as soon as they have been 
taken out of the water, turn up from the cold 
and die immediately, stiff frozen, and could not 
but pity the poor men who were subject to such 
exposure in rough weather. 

Friday, 20. — ^Two feet of fresh snow and 
a severe gale. Walked one mile and a half to 
James Miles, jun. and held full service, bap- 
tizino^ three children and churchino: the mothers 
of the two youngest. Good old Miles, in the 
freedom which the most devout will feel, during 
the performance of a religious service in a 
humble tilt, when I came to the charge which 
closes the office of baptism, respecting the 
bringing of the children at a proper age, and on 
their obtaining a proper proficiency, to be con- 
firmed by the bishop, devoutly exclaimed aloud, 
*' Ah ! there's no possibility for that in these 
parts ; — the more's the pity ! but, please God, 
we'll do our best," I could not but remind 



60 



LE CONTE. 



him, that our merciful God makes requirement 
only according to what we have, and not ac- 
cording to what we have not. 

Sunday, 22. — Up by five, and went at eight 
in a boat to English Harbour. There was a 
great deal of thin slob ice, and the " barber"* 
vapor was very cutting : reached the settlement 
at half-past ten, held full service, and baptized 
seven children. Started at a quarter- past three 
in a leaky punt, and reaching Femme by five, 
P.M., baptized five children for one Kippen, and 
passing New Harbour, and Little Bay de I'Eau, 
reached Le Conte, nine miles, where, a mile up 
the woods, I got, by seven, p.m., to the winter 
house of a large family. There I held full service 
and baptized eight children. Here were sixteen 
souls in a tilt of sixteen feet by twelve feet ten. 

Monday, 23. — Another deep fall of snow in 
the night, sleet driving to-day, and walking 
quite impracticable. I got, with difficulty, over 
a very steep and slippery hill from the tilt to the 

* A vapour of icy particles, occasioned bj the tempera- 
ture of the water being much warmer than the air, the 
caloric escaping from it forms a congealed atmosphere. 



RENCONTRE. 61 

Harbour Le Conte, when I took boat to go 
along the shore. As the equinoctial gale was 
very violent, we could not carry our foresail, 
and were obliged to go under a goose wing. 
Got by eleven, to Pinkey's Storehouse, at the 
east head of Mai Bay, which I was very happy 
to reach, as we had to steer with an oar, instead 
of a rudder, the boat which had been recently 
launched, having not yet been supplied with 
one ; and we shipped many sprays, which, as 
they froze immediately after falling upon our 
clothes, would have chilled the ardour of the most 
warm admirer of English aquatics. Held full ser- 
vice here to Mr. Newman and his men-servants. 

Tuesday, 24. — Wind westerly and high; but, 
as the people here are experienced and used 
to keep out in boats, through the winter, and 
were not afraid to go in the teeth of it a league 
to Rencontre, I did not object, and reached the 
family of Mr. B. C, by half-past ten, a.m. 
Full service, two children baptized ; sorry to 
observe some levity here, as I had in some other 
places, among the elder children. A company 
of six men had gone, last month, into the 
country from this neighbourhood, in search of 



62 EALORIN. 

deer, when falling in with a herd of about one 
hundred and fifty, they had followed them till 
they were caught in a snow-storm, and very 
narrowly escaped with their lives, all six being 
more or less frost-burnt. 

Wednesday , 25. — Wind off the shore ; up at 
five, A.M., and off at six. It froze hard enough 
to stop the leaks in a very leaky boat in which I 
was conveyed by Rencontre Island, past Belle 
Harbour and East Bay, above two leagues 
to Noster Cove, Long Island. Here I landed 
my men, to give notice to the people at Corbin 
of my intention to hold divine service in the 
P.M., at Balorin, and I held full service here to 
twenty adults, and baptized twenty-two chil- 
dren ; left at one, p.m. for Balorin, a neat set- 
tlement, where are one hundred and fifty souls. 
I found the settlement in much confusion upon 
my arrival, from the furious conduct of two 
drunken men ; but order was restored, and 
I held full service to more than one hundred, 
and baptized eight, not closing service until 
eight, P.M. The settlements in this neighbour- 
hood are very populous. There are, in this 
bay, at least three thousand persons, who are 
warmly attached to the church of England. 



MRS. CLUATT. 63 

Thursday, 26. — Found that the wife of John 
Cluatt, my host, was an old correspondent, who 
had assisted her grandfather Beck, and her 
father Tulk, late readers under the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel, in keeping school 
at St. Lawrence, in Placentia Bay. She told 
me with tears, that next to the death of her 
father, she had felt it the greatest calamity in 
her life, that, on her removing at marriage to 
her present place of residence, she had not been 
permitted, so great was the scarcity of books in 
her native settlement, to take with her her 
prayer-book and some other works of the Society 
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, with which 
I had supplied her some years before. The 
Reverend Messrs. Harris and Evans, former 
Missionaries at Placentia, had, within the 
memory of the most aged inhabitants, visited 
Balorin ; and, since my own residence in New- 
foundland, our Missionary, the Reverend James 
Robertson, had visited the place, and given me 
a very accurate description of it, and of its 
interesting inhabitants. I held a full service 
again to-day, 

Friday, 27. — And baptized four more chil- 



64 PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE. 

dren. I was sorry to omit visiting the adjoining 
settlement of St. Jacques, but I did not think it 
prudent to lose what seemed a fine opportunity, 
of going in a bank boat, twenty-one miles to 
Harbour Briton. We started at eleven a.m., 
and did not reach Harbour Briton till two 
A.M, of the next day, 

Saturday f 28. — when the Swift, our boat, 
which had not shown any great quantity of 
water upon our passage, nearly sunk at the wharf, 
and was found, on her being hauled up, to have 
been stove in launching. A large hole in her 
bottom, into which the hand might be thrust, and 
which let in water in such quantity, that the 
pump could not now keep her clear, had been 
covered with a coating of ice through the 
extreme severity of the weather. This coating 
had, providentially, not melted or worn away 
during our beat against a head-wind in Fortune 
Bay the whole of the preceding day, or we must 
have sunk before we could have reached the 
shore. Here I was confined two or three days 
with a diarrhoea, which, I find, is a very com- 
mon disorder at this season among those whose 
diet is confined to the venison which abounds 
hereabouts. 



BRUNETTE ISLAND. 65 

Sunday, 29. — Two full services in the sail- 
room of Messrs. Newman and Hunt, which had 
been fitted up with house-flags for the occasion. 
The agents of this firm, here and at Gualtois, 
seemed to vie with each other, as to which should 
carry the kind wishes of their principals most 
into effect, by paying me the most kind 
attention ; and showed every disposition, by 
sending notices to the surrounding settlements 
of my intention of service, to make my visit 
most useful ; — baptized one child publicly, and 
three at home. Preparations were made, and as 
much as 701., I believe, collected for the erection 
of a church here, when the Reverend James 
Robertson visited this place, and a good site 
was fixed for the building. 

Monday, 30. — Sailed at ten, a. m., in the Paul 
Pry, a sloop of forty-seven tons, in which Mr. 
Creed, agent to Messrs. Newman, had kindly 
forwarded me to Gualtois. I was sorry that I 
was prevented visiting Jersey Harbour, an estab- 
lishment in the neighbourhood, belonging to the 
Messrs. Nicol, of Jersey. Called at Brunette 
Island, twelve miles, at half-past two, p. m., and 
after holding full service to eighteen persons, 

F 



66 GUALTOIS. 

and baptizing five children, weighed anchor at 
six, p. M. Here we saw the wreck of the Royal 
Nigger, a fine vessel of the Messrs. Newmans, 
which had run ashore at this place on her way 
to St. John's, about Christmas last, and which, 
I regret to say, the people, instead of protecting 
as they might have done for its owners, had 
been unprincipled enough to plunder and break 
up. We beat against a head-wind through the 
night, and got to Hermitage Cove, Hermitage 
Bay, a place which I had visited five years ago. 

Tuesday, 31. — I held full service there, bap- 
tized nine children in public, and one in pri- 
vate, and visited a sick man. Left Hermitage 
Cove for Gualtois, Long Island, the whaling 
establishment of Messrs. Newman, which I 
reached in a storm of rain, by half-past three. 
My visits to the settlements in this neighbour- 
hood were much aided by the kindness of Mr. 
William Gallop, who was formerly a pupil of 
the free naval school attached to Greenwich 
Hospital, and now fills very ably the responsible 
station of agent to this r^pectable establishment. 

April, Wednesday, 1. — It did not clear up 



olave's cove. 67 

till ten, A. M., when I started in the Paul Pry 
sioop, accompanied by Mr. Gallop, and Mr. 
Thomas Gaden, the sub-collector of His Majes- 
ty's Customs, who had come on with me from 
Harbour Briton. I passed Furby's Cove, send- 
ing the inhabitants notice of my intention to 
hold service there in the evening, upon my re- 
turn ; and I proceeded eight miles to Olave's 
Cove, which I reached before the sloop, in Mr. 
Gallop's light eight-oared gig, and had assem- 
bled the three resident families for service by 
the time of her arrival ; — baptized five children 
in full service. I was glad to find here a few 
copies of " Bishop Blomfield's Prayers," and 
some other books of the Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge. A Clergyman in the 
neighbourhood of Sturminster, had sent them 
out to one of the planters, who had very pro- 
fitably dispersed them among the settlers around 
him. How much, under God, do this and 
similar societies effect towards keeping up a 
knowledge of Christian doctrine, and Christian 
requirements in these spiritually destitute set- 
tlements ! I left this place at four, and got to 
Furby's Cove by five, p. m. I held full service 
to sixty persons ; baptizing fifteen children. 
F 2 



68 furby's cove. 

The people of this neighbourhood are very 
warmly attached to the church of their fathers, 
and, when asked respecting their creed, say, 
they belong to " the good old English religion;" 
and I believe that, in the main, removed as they 
are from all social means of edification, some 
of them really adorn their good profession, 
although the too general prevalence of spirit- 
drinking, even among the females, is much to 
be lamented. When it is considered in England, 
that the original settlers of some of these places 
possessed, on coming out to this country, only 
the common modicum of attainments which fell 
to the lot of the inhabitants of English villages, 
before the institution of Sunday-schools, it may 
be conceived, what the third and fourth gene- 
ration in many such places is likely to be. 

Returned to Gualtois in the eight-oared gig, 
as we had dismissed the sloop on night's com- 



Thursday, 2. — Officiated to a very attentive 
congregation of twenty, in a loft which Mr. 
William Gallop had fitted up so neatly, that I 
regretted being obliged to leave the place before 
Sunday. Off at ten, a. m., through the Passage, 



BAY DESPAIR. 69 

between Long Island and the Main. In this 
passage there are two waterfalls : one so fine, 
that we rested upon our oars, for some minutes, 
to look at its unceasing flow of water, in an 
unbroken perpendicular fall of at least sixty 
feet. At one part of the tickle, where the hills 
were wooded close to the margin of the water, 
we came to ice, at the edge of which persons 
were engaged in boats, fastened to the ice by 
keel-logs, catching codfish. We hauled our gig 
over the ice, and again proceeded, and with 
difficulty got round Bremner's Head and to 
Cape St. Mark, on the opposite shore of Bay 
Despair. Besides a drizzling rain, the salt 
spray was thrown over us, and deposited so 
much salt upon our faces and clothes, that we 
were whitened like millers. We passed Same- 
lin, Passage, which was filled with ice. Isle 
Richards, Conne Head, and Diamond Point to 
Rottie Point, twenty-three miles. There we 
met with so much ice, that we drew the boat up 
and left her, and walked ourselves upon the 
ice ; this, from the rain which had fallen, was 
not quite trust- worthy. We got safely, how- 
ever, past the opening of Little River and Conne 
River to Messrs. Newman's winter crew, ten 



70 



PROPOSED ROUTE 



men, and a skipper, who were in a tilt twenty 
by fifteen, near the head of the south-east arm 
of Bay Despair, thirty-two miles from Gualtois, 
which I had left in the morning. After great 
difficulties we reached their tilt, by ten, p. m. 
They had all retired for rest; a fire was soon 
made, however, of wich-hazel sticks, two yards 
in length, and thick as our bodies, and by the 
fire's red glare, the men in their red or blue 
woollen shirts, as they came forward to welcome 
ns, and could be discovered through the smoke, 
presented a very grotesque appearance. 

My intention being to visit the southern and 
western shore of Newfoundland, far as the Bay 
of Islands, or at least, St. George's Bay, I had 
thought that it would economize time, if I went 
through the interior from the Bay Despair, a 
journey of eight or nine days overland, and so 
return by the settlements along the coast. By this 
arrangement, I should, after visiting the extreme 
point of my intended cruize, have been proceed- 
ing nearer to St. John's, by each day's journey 
along the shore, and should not have had to touch 
twice at any one place. For this purpose I hired, 
on the Bay Despair, Maurice Louis, a Micmac 
Indian, one of Mr. Cormack's suite, when he 



TO ST. John's. 71 

had been similarly engaged ; Jean Baptiste, Mr. 
Cormack's principal guide was, at this time, at 
the back of the land, as they term that part of 
the island which is about the river Exploits, in 
the north. The Indians also call the river Exploits 
the Spread, from the size of the stream. He 
returned within a few days, having been con- 
fined a week in the country from snow blindness. 
The guide whom I had now added to my other 
man, as my escort through the country, had 
once walked in the depth of the winter, from the 
Exploits across the island to Gualtois in four 
days. Many have compared my own visitation 
to the excursion of Mr. Cormack, an enterprising 
individual, whom I remember having seen at 
St. John's when I visited Newfoundland in 
1827. It has not, I should imagine, been very 
dissimilar ; and it would, indeed, be a matter of 
regret, if the zeal of a Missionary could not 
induce him to make as much exertion, and to 
endure as much privation, as others would 
brave in the pursuit of philosophical research, or 
the gratification of mere curiosity. 

Friday, 3. — Full service to the winter crew 
at half-past seven, a. m., before they went into 



72 WANT OF CALENDARS. 

the woods for their winter work. Here, and at 
other winter houses, I saw a rude calendar ; it 
was a piece of board, on which was carved an 
initial letter for each day of the week, thus, 
S. M. T. W. T. F. S. Under these letters the 
date of the month was chalked afresh at the 
beginning of each week. The monotony of a 
Newfoundland planter's life is remarkable. I 
met on my journey with pious persons, who 
had occasionally, from want of such a calendar 
as I have described above, so miscalculated 
the lapse of time, that they had scrupulously 
abstained from work on Saturday or Monday, 
supposing it to be Sunday. At two I started 
with my Indian pilot ; but we got no further 
than the bottom of this arm. Here were the 
wigwams of two Indian families of the Banokok 
tribe, or Six Nations, from Canada, and my 
guide requested that he might be allowed to 
stay the night, that he might repair his mocka- 
sins and make other preparations for his journey. 
Here I met with an interesting Indian, from 
Conne River, five miles hence ; his ascetic acts, 
and acts of real humanity, had acquired for 
him a character of holiness, and a great influence 
over his tribe. He was, at this time, under a 



ASCETIC INDIAN. V3 

self-imposed vow, not to break silence during 
the Fridays of Lent : accordingly, though the 
arrival of strangers was, of course, most exciting, 
and might have been expected to throw him 
off his guard, he exhibited a degree of impassive- 
ness and of nervous control (as he lay smoking 
his short blackened pipe, with his feet towards 
the central fire,) which were quite wonderful. I 
really imagined that the man was dumb. His 
imperturbability was the more surprising as he 
had it in his power, I found afterwards, by 
merely opening his mouth, to have exposed an 
act of rascality which had been practised upon 
him by a person present, who, had he left, as he 
was expected to have done, before dawn the 
next day, might have escaped detection. The 
spruce boughs in these wigwams were spread, 
like feathers, around the fire, which was in the 
centre. Towards this our feet were directed ; 
the softest and cleanest deer-skin was most 
courteously offered to me, and I passed the 
night very comfortably. I learned from Maurice 
Louis, that Zeul prestoul, in their language 
signified " God save you !" and a la zeud mat, 
** let us praise God !" but that they had no 
word for prayer. This instance of the poverty 



74 INDIAN MANNERS. 

of their language, if, indeed, we understood 
each other rightly, is the most extraordinary, 
since they certainly are no strangers to prayer. 
My Irish pilot, whom I shall so call, to dis- 
tinguish him from Maurice Louis, my Indian 
guide, informed me that, while he was four 
years with Brazil, an Indian chief, this Micmac 
never allowed his family to commence their 
day's hunting, or to lie down upon their green 
boughs at night, without prayer ; and I found, 
while I was myself among them, that the Indians 
were very regular in their evening and morning 
devotions and attention to their rosaries, and 
that, as they are Romanists, they were very 
particular in carrying their children over to the 
Romish priest at the French island of St. Peter's 
for baptism. The females particularly had a 
soft melodious hum in which they chanted with 
much seeming devotion, every night before they 
gave themselves to rest. 

Saturday, 4. — I started at half-past six into 
the interior. Two Indian squaws accompanied 
us, and two other Indians, as twenty deer, some 
of which they wanted to carry out, were buried 
in the snow, one day's journey directly upon 



SNOW-SHOES. 75 

our track. It is a singular fact, which the In- 
dians related to me, that bears and wolves have 
so great a dislike to the branches of the juniper, 
that if a few of them are stuck in the snow 
where the venison is deposited, they effectually 
preserve it from the depredations of these ani- 
mals. 

The Indian squaws pleased me much by their 
natural courtesy. Though walking above a 
hundred miles in Indian rackets or snow-shoes 
has made me now somewhat expert in the use 
of them, it may be imagined that I was at first, 
indeed I must be still, very awkward in them, by 
the side of an Indian. Being thirty-three inches 
in length, and eighteen inches broad, and weigh- 
ing each of them twenty ounces, even before 
they are saturated with wet, they occasioned me 
many falls and disasters. This was especially 
the case in descending very steep hills, or going 
upon the thin ice of Long Pond, which broke 
in under our weight. The water which had 
collected to the depth of a foot or a foot and a 
half on the top of the ice of some of the large 
lakes, had its own coat of ice, and although the 
safety of the traveller is not endangered by the 
weakness of this upper ice, his expedition is 



76 RESTING FOR THE NIGHT. 

very much impeded. Though noisy in their 
mirth at their own disasters, these Indians were 
courteous as French people could have been, in 
rendering me every assistance in my difficulties. 
We pitched for the night near the Bay of East- 
brook. A description of the process of making 
our temporary place of rest for this night may 
suffice for the description of our similar arrange- 
ments during the week. -The snow being at 
least ten feet deep, a rude shovel is first cut out 
of the side of some standing tree, which is 
split down with a wedge made for the purpose. 
Snow does not adhere to wood as it does to an 
iron shovel, consequently a wooden shovel is 
preferable for the purpose of shovelling out the 
snow. The snow is then turned out for the 
space of eight or ten feet square, according to 
the number of the company which requires ac- 
commodation. When the snow is cleared away, 
quite to the ground, the wood is laid on the 
ground for the fire. About a foot of loose snow 
is left in the cavern round the fire. On this 
the spruce of fir branches, which break off 
very easily when bent hastily downwards, are 
laid all one way, featherwise, with the lower 
part of the bough upwards. Thus the bed is 



SNOW CAVERNS. 77 

made. Some of these boughs are also stuck 
upright on the snow against the wall of snow by 
the side of the cavern, and a door or opening 
is left in the wall of snow for the bringing in 
during the night the birch-wood for burning, 
which is piled up in heaps close by for the 
night's supply, that any who may be awake 
during the night may bring it in as it is required. 
Here the traveller lies with no covering from 
the weather, or other shelter than the walls of 
snow on each side of his icy cavern and sur- 
rounding trees may supply. Of course as the 
laborious exercise during the day is sufficiently 
heating, and he is unwilling unnecessarily to 
increase his burden, he has no great coat or 
cloak for wrapping up at night. A yellow 
fungus which grows on the wich-hazel supplies 
tinder to the Indian, who is never without flint 
and steel, and he is remarkably expert in vi- 
brating moss and dry leaves and birch bark 
rapidly through the air in his hands, which, 
soon after the application of a spark, ignite 
and make a cheerful blaze. One who passes 
a night in the v/oods in the winter must halt 
by four p.m., for by the time the hole in the 
snow is dug, and a sufficient number of trees 



78 SNOW CAVERNS. 

are felled, and cut up to serve for the sup- 
ply of fuel for the night, it will have become 
dark. One of these resting-places, in which 
the snow was deeper than usual, reminded me 
of a remarkable sight which I had witnessed 
at Bermuda. There a sand, which was driven 
by the wind from a neighbouring bank or shoal, 
was making such rapid encroachments on the 
cedar groves, upon a certain part of the main, 
that several cedars were covered nearly to their 
tops by the sand which was gradually accumu- 
lating about them, clogging their branches, and 
threatening eventually to cover them. Here, 
as the fire melted our cave away, and enlarged 
our chamber of ice, branches of verdant spruce, 
fresh as when first covered in October and No- 
vember, came forth to view several feet below 
the surface of the snow, as the cedar branches 
were observed to do from the sand in Bermuda. 
There was no other point of similitude, however, 
between this scene and that which it recalled to 
my memory ; and grateful as a view of the green 
landscapes of Bermuda might have been to the 
eye, a few hours of its Favonian breezes would 
have placed me in no very agreeable condition. 
The correct and modest deportment of the 



INDIAN MANNERS AND COOKERY. 79 

squaws who were in our company here and in 
the wigwams, was highly creditable to them. I 
had met with dormitory arrangements in our 
own planters' houses, of so promiscuous a de- 
scription, that my Irish guide, who had lived 
four years with Indians, expressed his surprise 
at a want of delicacy which he had never seen 
among the Micmacs ; but I could not have ima- 
gined, had I not myself witnessed it, that this 
people could have shown so much delicacy and 
propriety of conduct as I observed among them, 
wherever I met with them. I have the squaws 
chiefly in view in this remark ; but I have never 
seen any of the men otherwise than well be- 
haved, except when they have been, under the 
influence of liquor. To the immoderate use of 
this they are too generally strongly addicted. 
There are gratifying exceptions, however. I had 
been supplied, by the kindness of Mr. Gallop, 
with som.e port wine, some of which I offered to 
my Indian guide, but I found that his notions of 
fasting were so correct, that they extended to 
all indulgences, and during Lent he declined 
tasting even wine : some of them during that 
season forego smoking. The Indians dress 
their venison on skewers of wood, which they 



80 NIGHT-SCENE. 

Stick in the ground around the fire. They 
plaited for me a basket-like mat, of small spruce 
boughs, to serve as a plate. In this they served 
me with the deer's heart, as the most delicate part 
of the animal. The intense cold made the trees 
crack, with a report, in the silence of the night, 
as though struck with an axe ; my watch also, 
under the same influence, became of little use, 
— a most serious inconvenience when traversing 
the country in a season when the days are so 
short, and a little miscalculation may occasion 
the traveller's being benighted before he is pre- 
pared. 

Sunday, 5. — At half-past six, a.m., I took 
leave of the two Indians and the young squaws, 
who were now returning, and as I parted from 
them, I felt that I should miss those musical 
prattlers; for their soft language, though I could 
not understand a word of it, had fallen very 
gratefully upon the ear in the stillness of a night 
in the forest. I had been induced, too, on the 
preceding night to creep out a little distance 
from the fire, that I might enjoy the picturesque 
effect of our little group, as the stars were 
twinkling in the broad arch of heaven, and the 



FACE OF THE COUNTRY. 81 

smoke was curling through the evergreen 
branches which were enlivened by the ruddy 
glare of our brisk fire ; and, as I heard the light 
laugh, and caught the good-humoured faces of 
my companions, I had felt that when they left 
us, I should retain all the privations and lose all 
which probably might have given some charm to 
such a tour. We saw tracks of deer every 
twenty yards as we passed through the country ; 
so numerous were they at last, that we ceased 
to take any notice of them; herds of deer be- 
came themselves objects of very frequent occur- 
rence. They offered a very interesting sight. 
The whole interior, with the exception of the 
tops of some of the hills, from which the snow 
had melted, was then white with snow. These 
bare spots upon the hills are called " naps;" 
though they are brown, and not green, they re- 
semble island meadows in an ocean of snow. 
On these the deer were grazing leisurely like 
cattle. They were travelling in quest of food 
from one of these naps to another. The par- 
tridges, or ptarmigans, were also very numerous 
upon these hills, searching for a species of cran- 
berry, which is called here, the partridge-berry, 
in places near water, which, after long frost, 

G 



OU BLINDNESS, AND 

becomes exceedingly scarce in the interior, the 
tracks of the deer were as thick, as of cattle in 
the snow in a well stocked farm-yard. I was 
obliged, in going through the country, to fasten 
my terrier, which accompanied me, to my belt, 
as he would follow upon scent of the deer, and 
be lost to me for two and three hours at a time; 
and though I had no fear but that he would 
come up with us again, he would, if let loose, 
have effectually prevented our coming within 
shot of any deer or ptarmigan. For three days 
we were favoured with very brilliant weather, and 
made so much progress upon the hard snow, that 
I believe we were one-third of our way across 
to Bay St. George, having got within sight of the 
Catt Aeau Hills. A field of white paper, varied 
only by an occasional blot of the pen, with the 
full glare of the bright sun upon it all day, and 
the red glare of the fire all night, to say nothing 
of the effect of the wind by day and of the wood 
smoke, or " cruel steam" by night, may give 
some idea of the constant trial to which our eyes 
were subjected. 

Monday, 6. — By night we felt our eyes very 
weak. 



OTHER DISTRESSES. 83 

Tuesday, 1. — The whole three of us were 
affected with a gritty, gravelly sensation in the 
eye, and were, at length, completely deprived 
of the power of sight. Our provisions, too, 
over which the Indian who was cook, had, with 
the usual improvidence of his race, not been 
sufficiently economical, were just out. In a 
country which abounds with game, and in which 
it is so difficult to travel even without any bur- 
den, none think of carrying provisions for more 
than a day or two into the interior with them ; 
but neither the pilots nor I could now see suf- 
ficiently to use a gun, or bear indeed to look 
upwards. The Indian did try, but he came 
back without success, although he met with 
many fresh tracks of deer, and heard many par- 
tridges, and in the course of the night, deer had 
evidently passed within twenty yards of our re- 
treat. It became so thick, moreover, that, had 
we been ever so little affected with snow-blind- 
ness, we could not have seen more than a few 
yards, and could not consequently have made 
any way in an unknown country. Our Indian 
guide, while he was in search of deer, nearly 
lost all track of us, when, our allowance of food 
being exceedingly scanty, our situation seemed 
g2 



84 SUFFERINGS FROM 

likely to be very deplorable. All Tuesday we 
rested in our icy chamber. What an oratory 
was it for the prayers of two or three, who were 
surely agreed touching what they would ask of 
their Father in heaven. The ejaculations, " give 
lis this day our daily bread," and " lighten our 
darkness," commanded a ready response. Such 
place might be a Bethel, and there may be sea- 
sons in the lives of those who travel, and scenes 
such as these, of which they may afterwards say, 
that the Lord was by them in the wilderness, 
and that it has been good for them to have been 
there. Some natural tears may have mingled 
with the water which the acrid vapour from the 
smoke of the damp wood (for it now rained) 
forced from my eyes, as T thought of the pro- 
bable anxiety of my dear wife, and of the like- 
lihood that all my dreams of future useful 
labours in the church might be thus fatally dis- 
sipated. It was at length hinted by the Indian, 
that my dog might make a meal ; and it is as 
much that they may serve in such a season of 
extremity, as for any fondness which they have 
for the animal, or use they generally make of 
them, that Indians are usually attended by 
dogs of a mongrel breed. Had oiy Indian pilot 



WANT OF PROVISIONS. 85 

known the coast, we might have got to some 
Indian wigwams -in White Bear Bay, but he did 
not like to attempt reaching that bay. The 
straggling locations of these Indians along our 
coast, reminded me much of the separation be- 
tween Abraham and Lot. The reasons, in the 
case of Indians, who separate son from father, 
and brother from brother, that they may have 
uninterrupted space for their hunting and fur- 
ring excursions, are similar to those which led 
the patriarchs to live apart, that they might have 
ample space for their pastoral pursuits. A 
large lake, inside of the Bay East, which I 
passed, gave me the idea, with its precipitous 
wooded cliffs, of an inland sea: the size of some 
of the lakes or ponds of Newfoundland is im- 
mense; a lake within the Bay of Islands, in 
which are numerous seals the whole summer, 
has an island of forty miles extent in the midst 
of it. 

Wednesday, 8. — This morning, on finding the 
weather still thick, I divided the bread-dust and 
crumbs, all which now remained of our pro- 
visions, not amounting altogether to more than 
two biscuits, into three parts, and gave a part 



^ 



86 FORCED TO RETURN. 

to each of my guides, reserving a like share for 
myself; and, as I had not the patent apparatus 
with me for extracting bread from saw-dust, 
though I saw the danger which must attend our 
moving in such thick weather, and blind as we 
all were, I perceived that we must either make 
an effort to return, or must starve where we 
were. I proposed, therefore, to the Indian 
pilot, that we should try to return to the spot 
where we had left so much venison buried. At 
first he hesitated ; but at length he agreed that 
we should attempt it. A black gauze veil, 
which I had kept over my eyes when the sun 
was at its height, and the resolution to which 
I had adhered of not rubbing my eyes, had 
preserved me, perhaps, from suffering so much 
from sun-blindness as my companions. Mau- 
rice Louis, the Indian, would open his eyes 
now and then to look at my compass ; — we 
could not see for fog more than a hundred 
yards ; he would fix on some object as far as the 
eye could reach, and then shut his eyes again, 
\vhen I would lead him up to it. On reaching 
it he would open his eyes again, and we would, 
in the same manner, take a fresh departure. It 
was literally a case in which the blind was 



GREAT DISTRESS. 87 

leader to the blind. The fog made our travel- 
ling dangerous ; it did indeed occasion our 
going astray ; but it ^vas providentially favour- 
able to us upon the whole ; for, had the sky 
been clear, and the sun bright as when we set 
out, we must have been incapacitated by our 
sun-blindness from moving for a week at least, 
and must have suffered much, if not fatally, 
from want of food. By forced marches, — the 
snow now being soft, and nearly the entire 
distance to be travelled in rackets, in conse- 
quence of which we could not make the same 
expedition which we did as we came along, — 
we were providentially enabled to reach by 
seven or eight, p.m., the same places at which 
we had halted at four each day on our outward 
march. Thus a degree of labour, that of digging 
and clearing, to which we were now quite 
unequal, was spared us on our way back. The 
small quantity of biscuit to w^iich we were now 
reduced, led me to advise my companions not 
to eat any quantity at a time, but to take a 
piece of the size of a nutmeg when hunger was 
most craving. We did, indeed, gather each 
day on our return, about as many partridge 
berries as would fill a wine glass a-piece. These 



88 WANT OF WATER. 

we found very refreshing and nutritive. Having; 
been ripened in the fall of last year, and been 
sheltered under the snow all the winter, they 
were, now that the snow melted away from 
them, like preserved fruit in flavour, and re- 
sembled a rich clarety grape. At night the 
want of water is a great privation in this winter 
travelling. At this season, if a lake or rivulet 
chance to be near your resting place, it is, in all 
probability, protected from invasion by so thick 
a coat of ice that it would require some hours' 
labour with a hatchet to get at it. A draught 
of water, obtained at such a price of labour, to 
guides already overwearied with carrying his 
burden and hewing his wood, a humane man 
would relish as little as Sir Philip Sydney 
would have relished a selfish draught atTutphen, 
or David from the well of Bethlehem. (2 Sam. 
xxiii. 15-17.) I contented myself, therefore, 
with water supplied by snow, melted by the 
smoky fire. This water, together with the wind, 
had the effect of parching and cracking my 
swollen lips to such a degree, that, when on 
getting out of the country on the 10th, I again 
saw my face, after an interval of eight days, in 
a piece of broken glass, I had some difficulty 



WOODPECKERS, ETC. 89 

in recognizing my own features. The most 
scorching heat in summer . does not tan and 
swell the face more than does the travelling in 
the snow at this season. Under the combined 
influence of the wind and sun, the skin peeled 
off from my nose and ears, and the exposed parts 
of the neck, as in summer. 

Thursday, 9. — Still dismally thick weather; 
but we proceeded on our way in the same 
manner as yesterday. The noise of the wood- 
peckers upon the bark of the trees truly por- 
tended rain, of w^hich we were much afraid ; we 
saw quantities of deer and ptarmigan, but, 
though the fog favoured our weak sight much^ 
we could neither of us take a sight with the 
lifted gun. At one place, we came upon the 
recent tracks of wolves ; they had consumed or 
dragged away all remains of a deer, except a 
little hair from the skin, and some blood, by 
which the snow was stained. By night, through 
God's most merciful protection, we reached 
the place where the Indians had left so much 
venison buried since Christmas. Much snow 
having fallen to-day, our feet were chafed with 



90 RED INDIANS. 

the rackets on which we had to walk the whole 
day, heavy as they were from being clogged 
with the newly fallen snow. My late trip into 
the interior has strengthened the conviction, 
which, from former journeys of the same kind, I 
had formed, that the Boeothic, or Red Indians, 
the aborigines of the island, must be extinct. I 
have met with several of the Micmac Indians, 
who are constantly traversing the interior ; none 
of them have seen these aborigines of late years ; 
and, from the nature of the interior, which does 
not abound with wood, it is impossible that, if 
they existed in the island, they could so long 
have escaped observation. In the interior of the 
island, the wood is so scarce, that I was more 
than once obliged, when the time of putting up 
for the night arrived, to look around for a suffi- 
cient quantity of wood to give a shelter for the 
night. Large expanses of country may be com- 
manded at one view, and the fire of a company 
of Boeothics would betray itself to the watchful 
Micmac by its smoke, at the distance of several 
miles. It may give some idea of the extent of 
view which is commanded in certain situations, 
if I mention, that from Webber's Hill, near 



REGAIN Newman's tilt. 91 

Little River, no fewer than one hundred and 
eighty lakes may be seen with the naked eye at 
one time. 

Friday, 10. — Rackets again necessary to-day. 
On coming out to the south-east brook of Bay 
Despair, we found that the last few days of soft 
weather had broken up the ice on which we had 
walked at the end of last week, and made it 
treacherous. It was now difficult and danger- 
ous to get to the place where the wigwams of 
the Banokok Indians had been left. I perse- 
vered, however, and, on reac|iing them, walked 
on to the winter crew's tilt, mentioned on the 
3d. There throwing myself into a dark linny, 
or '* lean-to," I sought some repose for my 
eyes, and availed myself of opodeldoc for my 
excoriated face, — a salutary, but very painful 
application, which happened to be the only one 
which was accessible. So heavy a rain noAv 
came on, that I was truly thankful I was not in 
one of those miserable unroofed snow-caves, 
which had, of late, been my only places of 
retreat during all weathers at night. 

Saturday J 11. — Kept my bed all day. When 



^2 WILD GEESE. 

we had gone into the interior, an old Indian 
had told us that the wild geese might be ex- 
pected with the first southerly wind. A southerly 
wind had since come, and with it thousands of 
these birds. They had been attracted to this 
arm by the quantity of goose-grass, and made a 
noise which resembled the harsh sound of a saw 
under the file, reminding me of Homer's descrip- 
tion of the sound of an army of cranes : — 

As when inclement winters vex tbe plain, 
With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, 
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly. 
With noise and order through the midway sky. 

Iliad, B. iii. 

I found that these birds of passage are led 
hither by an unfailing instinct at this season 
each year, till, the snow being melted from the 
marshes, they seek the interior, where they stay, 
till they emigrate again in the fall of the year, 
late or early, according as the season may be 
mild, or otherwise : last year they staid till 
December 6. 

Sunday^ 12. — Morning prayers to the winter 
crew before their breakfast this morning, and 



LITTLE RIVER. 93 

full service twice in the day. At the p. m. 
service, two men attended from Swanger's Cove, 
on the opposite side of the same arm, where the 
house of Nicol, of Jersey Harbour, has a similar 
winter's crew at work in the woods. 

Jean Michael, the ascetic Indian mentioned 
above, this day assembled the Indians for their 
worship, of which singing formed a very con- 
siderable part. He and the rest were collecting 
wild geese for an Indian feast on Easter Sunday, 
to which they congregate from all parts, and it 
was with difficulty that I could purchase one, on 
the morning of 

Monday, 13, — to take on with me to my 
hospitable friend, Mr. Gallop, of Gualtois. 
Started over the rotten ice, which let me through 
once, as I leaped from pen to pen. Went to 
Conne Head, across Conne River, where the 
water was nearly knee-deep, upon the ice to 
Jean Michael's wigwam, and waited there for 
low tide that we might walk on the beach. At 
Brand's Point we crossed the nick through the 
woods, and over barrens to Little River, which 
we had to ford, high as our waists, and reached 



94 GUALTOIS. 

the winter house of a man who in the summer 
lived at Grand Jervis. There I slept. 

Tuesday, 14. — Up at three, a. m. I had a 
very bad walk of ten miles down Little River, 
partly hopping from one pen of ice to another, 
and partly wading through the deep water 
round the points. To escape one or two of 
these points, I rafted myself upon pieces of 
floating ice down the stream. At length, on 
reaching a place where the river was clear from 
ice, we found a flat which belonged to the 
Indians. In this, I was conveyed through '*The 
Passage," (mentioned April 2,) to Gualtois. A 
vessel had recently arrived here from Torquay, 
in nineteen days, but, to my disappointment the 
captain, being no politician, had brought no 
papers, or accounts by which I might be in- 
formed of the movements in the political world 
at home. 

Wednesday, 15. — Snowed all this and the 
next day, so I resolved to stay here to hold ser- 
vice on Good Friday and Easter Sunday ; I 
could, at this central point, collect larger con- 



WHALERS. 95 

gregations than in any of the neighbouring 
settlements. Went to look at a neatly enclosed 
burial ground, for the consecration of which 
the people expressed a laudable anxiety. The 
Reverend James Robertson, having visited this 
place at a season of great mortality, had in- 
terred three persons in it at one time. I looked 
to-day over the whaling establishment of Messrs. 
Hunt and Newman. The machine with which 
the fat of the whale is cut into small pieces for 
the boiler, reminded me of a similar machine 
which I have seen used by sausage-makers in 
England. The refuse pieces of the whale, which 
are left in the boiler, after the oil is extracted, 
furnished, I am informed, all the fuel which is 
required for heating the coppers. This recalls 
to my recollection the fact, that the early settlers 
on this island used to make fires with piles of 
the carcasses of fat penguins, a bird which used 
then to be very common, but is now extinct, or 
has left the island. They were most cruelly 
treated while they abounded in the island, being 
often plucked for their feathers and then turned 
loose to perish, or burnt in piles as above de- 
scribed. The whalers were just commencing 
their work for the season. 



96 LARGE CONGREGATIONS. 

Good Friday, 17. — A good congregation of 
one hundred and fifty persons. 

Saturday, 18. — Snowed all day. 

Sunday, 19. — Easter Sunday. Two fine con- 
gregations of one hundred and fifty. Seven 
children baptized. 

Monday, 20. — Still snowing, and wind foul 
for me, but started in Mr. Gallop's gig, and 
passed Picar to Round Harbour, where I held a 
full service to eighteen, and baptized a child, 
and wrote three family letters for my host. 

Tuesday, 21. — Returned by foul wind. On 
seeking to make acquaintance, as in such cases 
of detention I am accustomed to do, with the 
libraries of the people, I was happy to find here 
many books of an higher intellectual stamp than 
I should have expected in such a place. Among 
others, I was gratified to see the excellent " New 
Manual of Devotions," which is published by 
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
I found, too, more habits of reading in this 
house than in any other, perhaps, without ex- 



LONG ISLAND HARBOUR. 97 

ception, which I had visited. I held a second 
service here. 

Wednesday, 22. — OfF at five, a.m., in a very 
heavy swell ; the wind contrary and bitterly 
piercing. I reached W. Strickland's, however, 
at Long Island Harbour, by half-past seven, 
A.M. There was much " swish ice" in the har- 
bour which we left, and we found much of the 
same here also. The people, being upon their 
fishing-ground outside, had seen us go into their 
harbour, so they returned, on so unusual an 
event as the entrance of a strange boat to their 
harbour, and assembled for full service. I had 
one baptism, and was much pleased with their sim- 
ple manner of singing. Sir Thomas J. Cochrane, 
the late excellent governor of Newfoundland, 
having put into Deer Island, White Bear Bay, 
while this Strickland and his brother John lived 
there, found them engaged, as is their custom, 
in reading prayers to their own and the neigh- 
bours' families on the Lord's Day ; an.d his Excel- 
lency presented him with a fine octavo prayer 
book, with the stamp of the Prayer Book and 
Homily Society. Strickland is very proud of 
this treasure. When he showed it to me, he 
begged with much liumility, that I would point 



98 THE STRICKLANDS. 

out to him those parts of the public service which 
a lay reader might use in a congregation. " We 
never saw a church," said he, "or where a 
church was, or got any schooling, for reading is 
hard to be got in these parts; but we taught 
ourselves, and go through the prayers alternate,' 
(he and his brother, he meant) " morning and 
evening, each Sunday." I promised to comply 
with a request which he, and scores similarly 
situated, made of me, that I would, soon after 
my return, send round some suitable sermons for 
his public reading, and I reminded him of the 
gracious promise of our Lord, that where two or 
three are gathered together in His name, there 
He will be, in the midst of them. The younger 
branches of the families of these good men 
could all read. A reference to the report of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, for 
the year 1830, will introduce the reader to a 
patriarch of the same name. I found him em- 
ployed in the same useful way at the Borgeo 
Islands. His seed, it will be seen, from this 
present description of two of the younger branches 
of the same stock, are likely to be blessed. At 
Little Bay, close to this place, so plentiful is the 
fish all the year round, that the women and 



GRAND JERVIS. 99 

children cut holes in the salt-water ice, and 
catch great quantities of cod-fish all through the 
winter. Left Long Island after service. Three 
hours' cold rowing against nearly a head-wind, 
attended with snow squalls, brought me to Push- 
through, Grand Jervis, upon the main. There I 
assembled a large congregation in the house 
of Charles King and his wife, whom I had 
visited in 1830. Nothing could exceed the joy 
with which this good pair welcomed this my 
second appearance among them. The increase 
of the population in settlements of this descrip- 
tion, is most rapid. I baptized twenty-two 
children here, all of whom had been born since 
my last visit, and there were some young chil- 
dren besides, who, from the absence of their 
parents or sponsors, or other reasons, were not 
now presented for this sacrament. How needful 
are scriptural schools in these rapidly increasing 
settlements ! A " New Manual," which, with 
some other good books, was in possession of my 
venerable hostess, was much and deservedly 
prized by the old lady. There had not been a 
single instance of mortality in this settlement 
since my last visit. Engaged a young man of 
superior education, whom I found here lately, 
H 2 



100 MUSQUITO. 

from Jersey, to read to the people on Sundays, 
and promised to supply him with proper books 
for the purpose. ♦ 

Thursday, 23. — Although I could not retire 
to bed until one, a.m. I was up by half-past 
five, A.M., and off by eight, for Bonne Bay, 
four miles, which I reached by ten. My host 
here had been thirty-three years in Newfound- 
land, and had never in that time seen any 
minister of religion. Full service in the evening, 
and eighteen baptisms. There was, I regret to 
state, a case in this settlement of habitual 
intemperance in a female. 

Friday, 24. — Off at six, a.m. in a very 
*' crank" punt, for Musquito, about two miles 
round the head. Most of the men were out on 
the fishing-ground : I suffered a little from dis- 
turbed bile, and from being exposed in open 
boats to cold winds and heavy swells. Full 
service, and ten children baptized. Having 
tried in vain to get to Muddy Hole in the 
teeth of the wind, we put back. I then held 
a second service, when two young married 
women and another adult, who expressed a wish 



FACHIEU BAY. 101 

to be baptized, and two more children, were 
christened. One of the married women was 
very much affected at her own baptism. I made 
acquaintance here with a volume, much soiled 
and mutilated, which contained many very ex- 
cellent prayers and pious meditations : the title 
of the book was gone, but it seemed, from a 
subsequent page, to have been entitled, "The 
New Year's Gift," and exhibited evident signs 
of having been much used in the family of the 
parents of my respectable hostess. 

Saturday, 25. — The wind still detained me. 
I assembled the people at Beaufit's house, for 
another full service. 

Sunday, 26. — The wind having abated in the 
night, J. Beaufit and his neighbours were up at 
four, A.M., and rowed me through " the young 
ice," which, from the frost at night, was, in 
some places, very thick, to Fachieu Harbour, 
Fachieu Bay. Here lives a respectable widower, 
with a little family of children, whom he is 
endeavouring to bring up religiously. Another 
man, with his wife and family, are also living 
here in idleness and disregard of all religious 



102 



MUDDY HOLE. 



duties. He declared, at once, a disinclination 
on the part of himself and family to profit by 
my services ; the widower, therefore, engaged 
to follow me to Muddy Hole, the next settlement 
in my line of visits, considerately suggesting 
that I might make more expedition, and fulfil 
my objects better by availing myself of the 
present mild day, than by staying to hold ser- 
vice in his single family. On this we proceeded 
to Muddy Hole, three miles. A few hundred 
yards from the mouth of the harbour, we met 
J. W. the principal planter. He was on his way 
to Fachieu Bay for " stuff," or wood, with three 
daughters and a son, in a punt. He was 
informed of the arrival of a clergyman of his 
own church ; but I grieve to say, that though he 
was the father of ten unbaptized children, he 
declined giving up the secular work by which he 
was profaning the Lord's Day, and did not even 
make the offer of his house for prayers during 
his absence. On reaching Muddy Hole, which 
is a singular little gut behind a rock, and makes 
no show from the sea, we tried to get admittance 
for service in the house of another professed 
member of the church, J. F. He, however, 
though the sun was now high, was still in bed, 



DRUNKENNESS. 



103 



and the other inmates of his house were only 
dressing themselves. This heathenish man, on 
being told the object of my visit, refused to get 
up; he *' did not think prayers of any use'." 
Thus repulsed, I proceeded. On arriving at 
Richard's Harbour, about a league farther on, I 
found that one of those scourges of this coast, a 
floating grog-shop, under the name of a 
^' trading-vessel," had been sojourning in Muddy 
Hole, last week, and had kept *' all hands," 
during the time of its stay, in a state of intoxi- 
cation : and it was likely, now, that they had 
not a stick to burn, or a fish for the kettle ; and, 
as this floating nuisance had only left the place 
the day before, it was not unlikely that the 
fumes of the intoxicating poisons thus supplied, 
had not yet evaporated. 

Having spent the whole preceding week in 
idleness, and dissipation, and excess, they 
grudged the Almighty this His own day of rest. 
The singular indifference of these sad people 
was now explained. If God should ever give 
them the privilege of another visit from a Mis- 
sionary, I pray they may be better disposed 
to hear meekly God's word, and to receive it with 
pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the 



104 HEATHENISM. 

Spirit. This instance of heathenism stands 
almost alone in my experience. I cannot say, 
quite alone ; for I record with pain, that in 
another part of Fortune Bay, on the other side 
of Harbour Boston, a youth, whose uncle was 
urging him to kneel, during the public prayers, 
almost disturbed the service by the loud strain 
in which he gave utterance to the rude and 
godless remark, that he was not disposed to 
wear out his knees by praying ! Surely, the next 
generation is likely to suffer much deterioration 
in settlements such as these, unless the mission- 
ary shall shortly be supplied to them, who may go 
among them with affectionate anxiety, and warn 
them of the peril of their present carelessness. 
How different were the manners of the people 
of Richard's Harbour, at which we now arrived, 
and where we obtained some refreshment, of 
which my kind crew, after their long row, were 
much in need. John Hardy, a former parishioner 
of Reverend — JoUifFe, of Poole, had lived 
forty years in Newfoundland, during the greater 
part of which time, he had been regularly 
employed himself, on Sunday, in reading pray- 
ers and a sermon to the families around him. 
For this occupation he was preparing at the 



Richard's harbour. 105 

moment of my arrival. He gladly ceded his 
oflBce to the commissioned minister, and we had 
two full services, and eight baptisms. Among 
many other good books in this house, were 
" Bishop Wilson's Introduction to the Lord's 
Supper," and " Stanhope's Meditations for the 
Sick," with the stamp of the Christian Know- 
ledge Society. Among the children baptized 
were three belonging to a widow who would 
soon become the mother of a fourth. I had 
observed, that some reflections in my morning 
discourse on the occasional suddenness of death, 
seriously affected her, and I found, that her 
husband had, only in February last, died in 
a manner awfully afflicting. On his return from 
deer-hunting, he had fallen down one of the 
clifTs, which were then within sight of our win- 
dow ; these are stupendously high upon this 
part of the coast : he had fallen two hundred 
feet at least, without any break to his fall, 
and had breathed his last within a few hours. 
One family only at Richard's Harbour was 
missing from the services ; and I found, on 
inquiry, that J. A., the careless man of Fachieu, 
above-mentioned, had come up in a punt with 
his wife, to spend the day in visiting, (a Sunday 



306 RELIGIOUS APATHY. 

practice too common in Newfoundland!) and, 
although they arrived before the commencement 
of the morning prayers, and did not depart until 
after the evening service was over, they did not 
seek to hear the message of the minister of 
God. And the false delicacy of the family 
which they were visiting, — I wish that such false 
delicacy were never found in less simple classes, 
in better informed persons ! — the family, thus 
visited, suffered a false feeling of delicacy to 
deter them from the performance of their own 
known duty, and to deprive them too, of a most 
rare privilege which may never again be afforded 
them. Should these remarks ever meet the eye 
of any of the unhappy parties to whom allusion 
is made, I would beg them to believe, that this 
partial publication of the events of that day, 
which made me sorry, is not made in a temper of 
anger, or a spirit of rebuking, or in any un- 
seemxly uncharitableness, which rejoices in the 
recollection of ill ; it is made in a spirit of 
meekness, and charity, and love; my prayer 
and heart's desire for those who have thus caused 
me grief is, that if I go again among them, 
I may not have heaviness and sorrow for them 
of whom I should wish to rejoice. 



REV. T. M. WOOD. 



107 



In the evening, John Hardy made me up a 
crew. They took me first under a most steep 
coast, in which are two not inconsiderable over- 
falls of water. We passed Hare Bay, and 
reached the Eastern Cul de Sac. This place 
reminded me somewhat of Petty Harbour, near 
St. John's, the present interesting station of the 
Reverend Thomas Martin Wood, whom I hope, 
with the concurrence of the Bishop and of the So- 
ciety, to locate in Fortune Bay, where a Mis- 
sionary is so much required. The father of the 
settlement here, was a French Protestant. In 
his house I assembled the neighbours for full 
service, and baptized twenty-three in all, some 
mothers, — interesting sight ! — offering them- 
selves, at the same time with their infants in their 
arms, for this sacrament. The places hereabouts 
retain their old French names ; but the people 
corrupt them sadly. My Chart only gives the 
English names: but, had it given the French, I 
might have been as much at fault to recognize 
Bay de Lievre, in Bay Deliver ; Bay le Diable, 
or Devil's Bay, in Jabbouls ; Bay de Vieux, or 
Old Man's Bay, in Bay the View ; Bay d'Aviron, 
or Oar Bay, in Aberoon, and the same of many 
other places. 



1 08 RENCONTRE. 

Monday, 27. — Up at four, a.m. Snowing 
and bitterly cold. Went in a punt five miles by 
the straight high steeps of Devil's Bay, and 
Little Bay, and the perpendicular cliffs of Iron's 
Cove, and St. Alban's, to Rencontre. Here the 
father of the settlement was a respectable 
Jersey-man ; I wrote a letter for him to a married 
daughter, whom I was likely to meet with, in 
my visitation further along the shore. I held 
full service in his house, and had twenty-nine 
baptisms. His wife delighted me by the piety 
of her discourse, and her example seemed to 
have been blessed to her numerous children. 

Tuesday, 28. — Walked at six, a.m., accom- 
panied by my hostess and another person from 
Rencontre, upon the hard snow, by some very 
mountainous hills, to Bay Chaleur, four miles. 
The French islands of St. Peters, and Miquelon 
could be seen from the hills. At Bay Chaleur 
was the residence of Reuben and Sarah Samms, 
a poor but worthy couple. The barque " Wil- 
liam Ashton," of Newcastle, had struck on the 
rocks at Lance Cove, on her way from Dublin 
to Quebec, with sixty- three souls on board, at 
two, A.M., of August 9, 1830. Reuben and 



BAY CHALEUR. 109 

Sarah entertained fifteen of the crew and passen- 
gers in their present little dwelling, and each 
day supplied the remaining forty-eight persons 
with provisions in the tilt, which they built for 
shelter at Lance Cove, the scene of the wreck, 
three miles from Bay Chaleur. A captain John 
Stoyte, of the 24th regiment, with his wife and 
her child and nurse were among those who were 
inmates of Reuben's house ; and, from letters 
since received, they retain, it is clear, a most 
lively sense of gratitude to their humble honest 
entertainers. They supplied the unfortunate 
lady with such necessaries of clothing as they 
could afford, she having landed from the wreck 
barefoot upon the pointed rocks. This wreck, 
like too many of those which are common on 
this shore, is said to have been occasioned by 
intemperance. Among the articles saved from 
the wreck, were some excellent tracts and re- 
ligious works, which belonged to Captain Stoyte. 
These, he kindly presented to the people when 
he left their hospitable home for the Messrs. 
Newmans' hospitable establishment at Harbour 
Briton, whence he soon proceeded to join his 
regiment in Quebec. Some of these books^ 
which were printed in Dublin, particularly 



no BOOKS FROM A WRECK. 

some remarks suitable to excite serious reflections 
before joining in the service of the church, were 
new to me, and seemed likely to do good, if they 
could be more extensively known and copies 
of them multiplied, that I begged I might 
be allowed to take them away with me, with an 
intention, which I have since fulfilled, of pre- 
senting them to the notice of the Protestant 
Episcopal Press, in the United States of Ame- 
rica ; to be reprinted by them, if the trustees of 
the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, or the 
conductors of any of their church periodicals, 
think them likely to be of service to the members 
of their communion. I found the contents of 
this box of books scattered about, but most 
carefully preserved, in the planters' houses in 
many of the surrounding settlements ; they are 
most highly prized by them, and they are likely, 
under God's blessing, to do so much service to a 
people, who are in a sad state of spiritual 
destitution, that, hereafter, I doubt not, if not 
now J the benevolent donors will be abundantly 
reconciled to the inconvenience and the losses 
attending their disaster, when they shall behold 
the rich fruits which shall have arisen from the 
good seed, which the accident then opened to 



BOOKS MUCH PRIZED. Ill 

them the opportunity of sowing. Some, indeed, 
of the poor people into whose hands the books 
have fallen, are unable themselves to read, but 
then they bring out the precious bundle of 
highly valued tracts from the sanctuary of their 
house chest, and, unrolling the piece of cotton 
or cloth in which they are carefully wrapped, 
they beg any temporary sojourner, or travelling 
bird of passage, who is a scholar, to read them 
to their assembled household. They availed 
themselves thus of my services between the 
hours of our public devotions ; and, as I have 
frequently been on other occasions, I was pleased 
to see that they had much feeling. At Chaleur 
Bay, I had an audience, who gathered their 
chairs nearer to me, and nearer, as their interest 
in a beautiful religious narrative, which I was 
reading, heightened, until one and another lifted 
the hand, and the corner of the rough apron in 
silence, to wipe the tear from their sunburnt 
cheeks ; and one woman, at the close of the 
tale, took up the chord for the rest, and re- 
marked with a striking simplicity ; — " It is very 
feeling, sir!" The conduct of Reuben Samms, 
contrasts well with the less creditable conduct of 
many upon this shore, as regards wrecks. Before 



112 REUBEN SAMMS. 

the wreck of the " William Ashton," he had 
been instrumental with his brother, in saving 
persons at different times from five other wrecks. 
On one occasion, he had observed signs of a 
wreck and discovered footmarks upon the rugged 
shore, and tracked them several miles into the 
interior, where he found seven men from the 
" Mary," which belonged to Mr. Broom, the 
present senior magistrate of St. John's. The 
poor fellows had been three days and nights 
without food, and, but for his exertions in pur- 
suing their tracks must have perished. The 
simple description which he gave me of the joy 
which was depicted upon the haggard coun- 
tenances of these starving and lost seamen, when 
they first caught sight of him in the interior, 
was most affecting, and reminded me of the 
experience of the lost sinner, when he first 
makes discovery of a Saviour ! When I had 
performed full service at Bay Chaleur, and bap- 
tized his four children, his wife humbly offered 
herself also for baptism, as did also Lis mother- 
in-law, who was sixty-two years of age, but had 
never before had an opportunity, though well 
read and instructed, and of pious conversation — 
of thus solemnly dedicating herself in this 



snook's cove. 113 

scriptural method to the service of Christ. The 
greater part of these two families returned with 
me to Rencontre. We somewhat shortened the 
distance which we had to walk, by going in a 
boat to Snook's Cove. But in stepping out of 
the boat, I did not make sufficient allowance 
for the run, or rise of the water, in which there 
was a very heavy swell, and slipped in up to my 
waist. On my return had a full service again, 
and two more baptisms. 

Wednesday, 29. — Much wind, and very cold. 
Yet the elder Mrs. Samms, and Mrs. G. Ball, 
and several of the family, volunteered at the 
risk, nay, the certainty, of getting very wet 
with the seas and sprays, to accompany me 
with a boat's crew to New Harbour, which I 
reached by nine a.m. Here I held full service 
twice, and baptized thirteen. Among these was 
a serious woman of fifty-two, the relict of two 
husbands. She came forward in the face of the 
congregation, and requested that she might be 
permitted to avail herself of this, the first op- 
portunity which had occurred, for her baptism, 
although she had often anxiously hoped for such. 
Here I met with a young man, a native of the 



114 A PIOUS FRAUD 

village of Aylesford, in Nova Scotia, in which 
the bishop of the diocese has his country seat. 
He was engaged in a mercantile tour along this 
shore, and, as he was proceeding hence in the 
same direction in which I was going, he kindly 
offered me accommodation in his hired boat, of 
which I very gladly availed myself. I may 
mention here a pious fraud which I detected in 
this neighbourhood. There is, among the poor, 
in many parts of this island, a superstitious re- 
spect paid to a piece of printed paper, which is 
called the " Letter of Jesus Christ." This, in 
addition to Lentulus's well-known epistle to the 
Senate of Rome, contains many absurd super- 
stitions, such as the promise of safe delivery in 
child-bed, and freedom from bodily hurt to 
those who may possess a copy of it. A humble 
person on this shore, who had long possessed 
one of these papers, wished to supply some of 
her relatives and neighbours with copies, and 
sent home a commission for several. Instead of 
the lying imposition which she had sent for, 
several hand-bill placards, or sheets came out 
to her, in which admirable texts were appended 
to the above-named letter of Lentulus, and a 
promise of eternal life was held out to those who, 



UPON SUPERSTITION. 115 

possessing', — not that paper ! but a copy of the 
sacred scriptures, should read and believe them, 
and live according to them. The woman had 
felt disappointed, and detailed her disappoint- 
ment to me. On examining the case, of course 
I could not sympathize with her, and endea- 
voured, I trust successfully, to explain the un- 
scriptural character of the first papers, and to 
recommend that, in all future importations, she 
should take care to order those which came 
from the same press; — Davis, of Paternoster 
Row. 

** You think, then, they will have as much 
goodness in them as the old ones, sir ?" 

" As much, certainly ; and I should imagine 
more, my good woman, if you would only be 
guided by the good advice which is given in 
that paper." 

Went twelve miles to Cape La Hune Har- 
bour; where was a perpendicular cliff, with 
deep water so close along-side of it, that it re- 
sembled a stone dock, or wharf. Found some 
of the' people here very uncouth and rude in 
their manners, and some of the females particu- 
larly coarse in their language. Held full ser- 
vice, and baptized twelve. I was glad to find 
i2 



116 REMARKS ON VANITY 

that the children were accustomed to put up a 
short thanksgiving before and after meat, and to 
observe morning and evening prayers, although 
from the manner in which some of the poor crea- 
tures went through the several services, and 
the blunders which they made, it seemed they 
had little of understanding in their devotion. I 
remember that, in a family which I visited, the 
eldest daughter was the domestic chaplain ; I 
was not willing to interfere with her functions, 
when she was called forth by her mother with 
a sort of pride to officiate, before the family 
meal. But the poor girl made and repeated 
the mistake, when alluding to God's bounty, by 
saying " bounteous liberty," instead of " boun- 
teous liberality," which the sense obviously 
required, and which the original grace which 
had been handed down by tradition in the 
family, must evidently have contained. On this 
I was emboldened to lead the family in the use 
of a form which was better calculated to express 
their simple gratitude. I know that a certain 
pride in the religious attainments of their chil- 
dren is a weakness frequently to be deplored in 
religious parents. They pride themselves on the 
manner in which their dear little ones lisp their 



IN RELIGIOUS PROFESSION. 117 

prayers, and infant praises, and they encourage 
vanity in their dear little innocents, who should 
bring to such exercises no desire to display, no 
feeling but of humble child-like dependence on 
the God'whom they are addressing or describing, 
I shall not, I hope, be suspected, in what I feel 
it my duty to say, of smiling at the peculiarities 
of the poor, or of levity in the remark, as it 
applies to any parents ; for I have often la- 
mented, as I have seen much of the same objec- 
tionable vanity in the drawing-rooms and nur- 
series of those of the higher classes, who are 
endeavouring to bring up their children reli- 
giously ; nay, I may confess that I have, in former 
years, felt a degree of the same vanity myself : 
— what parent has not ? — but I think I have 
learned a lesson, from the exhibition of this 
general disposition of the human mind in many 
a fisherman's cabin, which will go far towards 
putting me upon the guard against this error in 
myself, and I shall truly rejoice if my remarks 
may be the means of calling the attention of 
other parents to the same. It will be seen that 
it was strictly within my province to make 
certain inquiries respecting the domestic habits 
of the families which I visited. The attention 



118 RELIGIOUS DISPLAY. 

paid to the daily reading of the scriptures was a 
subject of inquiry, — the observance of morning 
and of evening prayer, — the employment of the 
Lord's day, — it will be seen, were questions cal- 
culated to draw forth the love of the display of 
the religious acquirements of their children, in 
persons of vain minds. Accordingly, the obser- 
vation was made, behind my back, to one and 
another who might accompany me, for some 
distance, on my trip, — "■ Surely, the archdeacon 
must think us heathens, to ask such questions 
as these; we must show him that we learn our 
children their prayers ; — mind, my dears, that 
you do not be content with the parson's prayers 
to-night, but let him hear you all saying your 
prayers, after you get to bed." Accordingly, it 
has more than once occurred, that, through the 
thin partition which separated my sleeping 
cabin from that of a nest of children, I have 
heard, for an hour or two after I have retired to 
bed, the little voices of the younger branches of 
the family, strained to an unnatural pitch, re- 
peating the ten commandments, the duty to 
God and our neighbour, the belief, and other 
portions of the catechism, and perhaps a hymn 
or two of Dr. Watts, (all, in fact, which could 



CUL DE SAC. 119 

be brought from their scantily stored memory,) 
as prayers. Thus the performance of what 
should be a solemn, serious, and secret trans- 
action between the humble worshipper and his 
God, has given occasion to the fostering of an 
unheavenly temper, and even in these quiet 
retreats the seeds have been sown of that re- 
ligious display, that " talking religion," as I 
have heard it designated by a pious quaker-lady, 
which is doing so much harm, and bringing so 
much discredit upon the cause of real piety and 
godliness, in the larger family of man, of which 
each humble fishing station, each village and 
rural cottage, is an epitome or miniature. But, 
to return to my journal. 

May 1, Friday. — After a night of snow, the 
weather was yet unsettled. I was put across 
La Hune Bay in a boat, and walked about two 
miles, across some mountainous ridges, in the 
" gulshes," between which the hardened snow 
was still thirty or forty feet high, to Western 
Cul de Sac. Here I held full service, and hav- 
ing baptized two children, and one of the 
mothers, I walked back, to hold full service 
again in the evening, at La Hune Harbour. 



120 BURNT ISLANDS. 

Saturday^ 2. — OfF before seven, a. m., and, to 
my great regret, passed the Borgeo Islands, with 
the respectable inhabitants of which place I had 
kept up a correspondence, and supplied them 
with books, since my visit to them in 1830. We 
anchored at eight p. m. at Duck Island, Cut- 
teau Bay, fourteen leagues. There, by the 
blaze of a cheerful fire, made from the wreck 
wood, so common on this coast, I held full ser- 
vice in a neat planter's cabin, and, baptized six 
children. 

Sunday f 3. — OflP at half past five, a. m. ; 
struck, for an instant, upon a rock in working 
out with our deck-boat. Got, by one p. m., to 
Burnt Islands. We passed La Poile. This part 
of the shore is so fatal to European vessels 
which are outward bound to Quebec in the 
spring, that it is much to be regretted that the 
legislatures, or Chambers of Commerce of Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canadas, do 
not unite with the government and merchants 
of Newfoundland, for the erection of light- 
houses here and at Port-aux-Basque, and at 
Cape Ray. Many vessels and many lives might, 
each year, be saved from destruction by such 



DANGEROUS COAST. 121 

a measure. Mr. Anthonie, indeed, a humane 
Jersey merchant, resident at La Poile, has 
erected, upon a rock off La Poile Bay, a small 
observatory. This is of some service to a few 
who know its situation ; but the shore in this 
neighbourhood is so very low, and the ledges of 
rock extend so far out to sea, that a vessel may 
be in danger before the little beacon is disco- 
vered. At the cabin in which I staid at Burnt 
Islands, the playthings of the children were 
bunches of small patent desk and cabinet keys, 
which had been picked up from wrecks. Beau- 
tiful old China plates, and pieces of a more 
modern elegant breakfast set of dragon china, 
which had been washed ashore in the same 
way, were ranged upon the shelves alongside of 
the most common ware ; and a fine hucka- 
bac towel, neatly marked with the initial let- 
ters, L. C. D., was handed me on my express- 
ing a desire to wash my hands. This had 
been supplied from the wreck of a vessel in 
which were several ladies. To some hearts those 
letters, doubtless, would renew a sad period of 
anxiety, which preceded the intelligence of the 
melancholy certainty of a sad bereavement. I 
could not look at this relic of a toilet, now no 



122 AWrUL WRECKS, AND 

more required, without emotions of deep in- 
terest, although I had no clue by which I could 
attach recollections of brilliant prospects early 
blighted, or pious faith exemplified in death to 
these three letters. Indeed, the scenes and 
circumstances, the very people by whom I was 
surrounded, roused within me a train of deeply 
melanjcholy sensations. My host may have been 
a humane man ; his conduct to me was that of 
genuine hospitality ; but it had been his fre- 
quent employment at intervals, from his youth 
till now, to bury wrecked corpses, in all stages 
of decomposition. There had been washed on 
shore here, as many as three hundred, and an 
hundred and fifty on two occasions, and num- 
bers at different times. This sad employment 
appeared to have somewhat blunted his feelings. 
I would not do him injustice, — the bare recital 
of such revolting narratives, " quorum pars 
magna fuit," unvarnished as such tales would 
naturally be, in the simpler expression of a 
fisherman, might give an appearance of want 
of a feeling, which nature may not have denied 
to him, and of which the scenes and occupa- 
tions of his life may not have wholly divested 
him. I remember well my expressing my re- 



THEIR REMAINS. 123 

luctance to allow him to disinter a delicate 
female foot, the last human relic, which the 
waves, or the wild cats, or the fox, or his own 
domestic dog, had deposited in the neighbour- 
hood of his cabin. He had recently picked it 
up close to his door, and had buried it in his 
garden, and was very anxious to be allowed to 
shovel away the lingering snow, that he might 
indulge me with a sight of it. I suppose my 
countenance may have betrayed some feeling 
of abhorrence, when he said, " Dear me, sir, 
do let me ; it would not give me any concern at 
all : I have had so much to do with dead bodies, 
that I think no more of handling them, than 
I do of handling so many codfish !" I have 
said, that I believe him humane ; yet wrecks 
must form his chief inducement to settle in a 
place so barren and bleak, and to live through 
the winter out upon the shore as he does, con- 
trary to the usual habit of the people, which is 
to retire into the woods until late in the spring. 
But humanity might prompt a man to live 
where his services may occasionally be exerted 
usefully for the preservation of human life. 
Yet, did I wrong him in the judgment of charity, 
when I saw his quick eye kindle with the gale. 



124 SUPERSTITIONS. 

as he watched the stormy horizon ? Was I 
wrong when, as he went in the early dawn and 
dusk each evening, while I was there, to a hill 
a little higher than the rest,- with his spy-glass, 
I thought his feelings and my own, — on discern- 
ing that a vessel had, during the night, struck 
some of the numerous rocks which abound 
hereabouts, or was on her way to do so, — might 
be of a very different character ? This man is 
only a sample of many whom I saw on this part 
of the coast. 

Monday, 4. — A very severe gale, and I could 
not stir from my quarters. I have already re- 
marked upon the superstition of the people 
upon this part of the coast. A man had died 
in this neighbourhood lately, (I believe by a 
watery grave.) I found that a story of the 
appearance of his spirit, which was circulated 
by an illiterate drunken scoundrel, with the 
obviously interested motive, clumsily concealed, 
of influencing the distribution of the poor fel- 
low's little effects, was very generally believed. 
More incredulity was expressed at my assurance 
that the distribution of a south-wester, a fqx- 
trap, or a pair of mockasins, was not a " dignus 



seal's cove. 125 

Deo vindice nodus," a matter for Divine inter- 
ference, than had been excited by the whole 
story itself. On seeing a young woman here- 
abouts deliberately making a cross upon her 
shoe with spittle, I inquired what this meant, 
when I found that this was to drive away the 
cramp, or a sleepiness which she had felt in 
that part of her foot. A young woman who 
had, a few years before, practised with her 
father upon the ignorance and credulity of her 
neighbours and strangers at Gualtois, by affect- 
ing to receive divine communications, and to 
prophecy, was now living in lewd adultery in 
this neighbourhood with the husband of another 
woman. 

Tuesday, 5. — Went up three miles to Seal's 
Cove, Dead Islands. There I held full service, 
and baptized two children ; the elder children 
of the same family I had baptized when here in 
1830. Then, it will be remembered, that I 
had (as related in Report of Society for Pro- 
pagating the Gospel for 1836), the pleasure of 
presenting to the daughter of George Harvie, 
my present host, a gold medal, which his 
Majesty's Government had given him for his 



156 REWARDS FOR HUMANITY. 

own and his daughter's humane exertions in 
saving one hundred and eighty passengers from 
the brig '' Dispatch," which was wrecked on 
this shore, on her passage from Londonderry 
to Quebec, in 1828. He had, also, received for 
the same benevolent exertions, 100/. from the 
subscribers at Lloyd's. The best effects may be 
anticipated from these generous rewards being 
given to persons who properly exert themselves 
in saving life or property upon this dangerous 
shore. I could much wish that some such 
acknowledgment could be given to Reuben 
Samms, whom I have mentioned (April 28), and 
to a worthy man, Miessau, whom I shall men- 
tion at May 7, whose laudable exertions in the 
cause of humanity richly entitle them to some 
reward, while their circumstances are such as 
would render any gratuity acceptable. 

Such acknowledgments attach the dwellers 
upon this desolate coast to their mother-country; 
they are of service, as they rouse in them a 
degree of pride that they belong to a country 
which is liberal in its rewards, and parental in 
its oversight over its most distant colonists ; and 
they stimulate to the exercise of humane exer- 
tion, when a selfish apathy might secure a prize 



DEAD ISLANDS. 127 

in the cargo of some vessel exposed to danger. 
In my way, this morning, I saw the topmast of 
a large vessel of three hundred tons, which had 
been wrecked here last fall ; and, on going in 
the afternoon to another of the Dead Islands, a 
mile and a half, I saw a new vessel of seventy 
or eighty tons, which some Basque people, from 
the French island of St. Peter's, had, contrary 
to treaty, built last winter on Codroy River. 
She had gone on shore here the very night after 
slie was launched, and was, with difficulty, 
made tight to proceed to St. Peter's. Held 
full service, and baptized six children, and pro- 
ceeded to Port au Basque, or the Channel, in 
the same evening. Had I been here on the Sun- 
day previous, I might have had a congregation 
of two hundred, — there were so many boats and 
vessels belonging to Fortune Bay, which were 
bound to the western fishery at anchor here. 
I assembled fifty persons, and baptized ten 
children. Death had been at work here as well 
as at Isle a Mort, since my last visit. Michael 
Guillam and Thomas Harvie having both lost 
their wives. 

Wednesday , 6. — Went three miles to Gale's 



128 FRENCH CANADIAN. 

Harbour, where were two families, and two 
children to baptize. The parents having friends 
at Cape Ray, or Cape South, as the people 
term it, fell in with my suggestion, that they 
should take the children on with me, nine miles, 
to that settlement for sponsors. When there, I 
held full service, and baptized fifteen children. 

Thursday^ 7. — The gale so strong that I 
could not proceed ; held full service and bap- 
tized four more children. I staid here at the 
house of a French Canadian, whose simple 
recital of the efficacy of his prayers, in a cer- 
tain season of imminent peril at sea, and inti- 
mate acquaintance with the Scriptures, which 
he knew just sufficient of English to read in 
our tongue, pleased me very much. Within a 
few days of my leaving his house, the courage 
and humanity of this man of faith were called 
into exercise by the appearance in his neigh- 
bourhood of a boat, with a portion of the ex- 
hausted crews from a wrecked vessel in her. 
The breakers made it impossible that the people 
in the boat should effect a landing ; he leaped 
into the sea at the peril of his life, to give them 
a rope : a favourite dog, which I had admired 



NEWFOUNDLAND DOGS. 129 

while Ihere, was with him ; and on the boat's 
swamping, when Miessau swam with one man 
in his protection, his faithful dog seized another 
to draw him to the shore. The south-wester 
hat, however, which the drowning seaman wore, 
on which the dog had seized his hold, came off 
in the water, and the dog not observing the 
diminution in the weight of his burden, was 
proceeding to the shore with the cap alone, 
when the sailor seized the tail of the dog, and 
so was towed to shore. The master of the 
wrecked vessel, who was one of the boat's crew, 
was taken in a state of insensibility into Mies- 
sau's house, and some hours elapsed before he 
became conscious of any thing which was pass- 
ing around him. This late instance, which I 
have quoted above, of the sagacity of the dog 
of Newfoundland, may be classed with many of 
the same kind, which I have heard well authen- 
ticated, and indeed have witnessed many since 
my residence in the island. An old dog is now 
living at Jersey Harbour, near Harbour Briton, 
in Fortune Bay, which has exhibited, in many 
instances, a degree of sagacity which will hardly 
be credited. He has been known to assist in 
carrying on shore some light spars, which the 

K 



1,30 RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE. 

captain of a vessel in the harbour desired him 
to cai'ry to the land-wash, that a boat's crew 
might be spared the trouble of carrying them. 
Another dog belonging to the same wharf has, 
as a volunteer, or upon invitation, assisted him 
in this work for a time ; but has left his work in 
the middle of his second turn, swimming to 
shore without his spar : when the first dog has 
quietly swam to shore with his own turn, and 
then sought the runaway dog, and given him a 
sound threshing, and used to him other argu- 
ments of a character so significant and con- 
vincing, that the runaway has returned to his 
work, and quietly persevered in it, till the spars 
which had been thrown overboard were rafted 
to the shore by the sagacious animals. 

Friday, 8. — Full service again, heard of 
some mothers of families in this neighbourhood 
who were deplorably ignorant, not being ac- 
quainted with the Lord's Prayer. The interests 
of their children led them now, though late, to 
seek instruction in matters about which they 
had hitherto cared too little themselves. 

Saturday, 9. — Wind still so high, that boat- 



FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS. 13i 

ing was impracticable : started to walk nine 
miles to Little Codroy River. A difficult 
walk ; the shore, all along, was strewed with 
wreck-wood, and balk or timber from cast- 
away vessels, or from vessels which, in time of 
danger, had been eased of their deck loads. 
Held full service, baptized fourteen children, 
and churched a woman. 

From Cape Ray the French have a concurrent 
right given them to fish along our shores, as 
far as Cape John, upon the northern shore 
of the island. I say a concurrent right, for 
although I found that the French claim an ex- 
clusive right, and occasionally interfere with 
our fishermen, I can never imagine that the 
English Government can have been impolitic 
enough to have intended to convey more to the 
French than a concurrent right of fishery ; and 
indeed, as 1 read the treaties, no more was ever 
conveyed to them. None would dispute the 
right of the English nation to grant to any other 
nation the same right of fishery along these 
shores to-morrow, which we have granted to the 
French ; and it is extremely absurd to imagine, 
that while we may grant to this or that nation a 
privilege of fishing along our shore, the English 
K 2 



132 REMARKS ON THE 

fisherman — the English planter should be ex- 
cluded ! The English Government, even allow- 
ing the supposition of its having merely granted 
a concurrent right to the French, has gone to 
an impolitic length. It has thus given to a 
rival nation, as it has in the case of the Ameri- 
cans also, the means which the want of colo- 
nies has denied to the one, and a want of 
sufficient extent of coast, has denied the other, 
of rearing an eiFective mercantile marine. The 
importance of such a marine to any nation may 
be estimated, when it is considered what it has 
helped to make of the little island of Great 
Britain, — and when it is remembered that it was 
the means of the late resuscitation of Greece 
and of her emancipation from the Turkish yoke. 
With the policy of this measure, in a political 
point of view, the Missionary has no concern ; 
but it is impossible for him to travel in Pla- 
centia and Fortune Bays, or on the Western 
coast, without his observing much sad incon- 
venience, which may be traced to this impolitic 
indulgence on the part of the parent govern- 
ment. Perpetual collision between the people 
of the rival nations, who are thus brought into 
competition upon the same field of labour, is 



FRENCH TRADERS. 133 

promoted, and this is detrimental to that peace 
which he would wish to see existing between 
persons of various nations, who are engaged in 
common commercial enterprises. But this is 
not all. The illicit dealings which, on such a 
coast as this, it is impossible to prevent between 
our people and these foreigners whom we have 
encouraged around us, — particularly with the 
French, resident in the islands of Miquelon and 
St. Peters — confound the moral sense of the 
people. The temptation of the bounty which is 
given by the French government, for fish taken 
hence by the French to the West India market, 
induces many of the French to cheat their own 
government, and to tempt our poor fishermen 
by secretly giving the English, among whom 
they are promiscuously fishing in open boats at 
sea, a good price for their fish, — while the mer- 
chant who has supplied the English fisherman 
with his provisions for the winter, and his neces- 
sary outfit for the fishery, is defrauded. All 
dealing with the French is an injury to the 
colonial revenue. It may be expensive, but it is 
a most necessary act of policy, under existing 
circumstances, to station sub-collectors of his 
Majesty's customs, who might prevent illicit 



134 lord's-day profanation 

dealing, at least as far as Port aux Basque, if 
not as far as the important settlement of St. 
George's Bay. It must give a Missionary pain 
to observe in every house which he enters, for 
leagues along the coast, evidences in the pro- 
visions which are set before him, in the dress of 
the inhabitants, and in the decoration of the 
houses, that illicit dealing is carried on to an 
extent which must injure materially, if it do not 
ruin and drive from the shore, every English 
mercantile speculator, while it accustoms the 
people to an illegal traffic, and is so far detri- 
mental to their moral principle. The bad ex- 
ample, too, of the profanation of the Lord's-day 
by the French, in and off our harbours, exer- 
cises a sad influence upon the morals of our 
people : it may be imagined, that it is a trying 
sight for a poor fisherman who has been toiling 
a whole week, and has caught nothing, to see 
the bait on which his whole catch of fish — his 
harvest — depends, caught in seine nets, and the 
batteaux put over the sides of the French 
schooner, and the fish caught and split before 
his face upon the Sunday ! 

Sunday f 10. — Snow. Went up six miles to 



AT CODROY ISLAND. 135 

Great Codroy River : full service, and baptized 
eight children. A cold row to Codroy Island. 
Here I regretted to find one of the principal 
inhabitants too much intoxicated to derive any 
advantage from my visit, although he intruded 
himself into the house in which we held prayers, 
and exposed himself sadly, at the close of my 
sermon, by proposing to me a very senseless 
and indelicate question in the face of the whole 
congregation. He was in the same senseless 
state of intoxication the next day, although we 
then succeeded in keeping him in ignorance of 
our service, and so proceeded without any in- 
terruption. On my reaching the place, the 
beach exhibited the appearance of a common 
working-day. There were several fires on the 
shore, by which the French were brimming or 
caulking their boats, and their crew were fishing 
in the offing, as upon a week-day. 

Monday J 11. — Full service again, and bap- 
tized fourteen. From Cape Ray, to this place, 
the soil is so much improved, that it is quite 
capable of being brought into cultivation ; cattle 
are very numerous here already. Between Cape 
Ray, indeed, and the Bay of Islands, there is 



136 PERILOUS PROGRESS 

decidedly more land capable of being brought, 
with very little trouble, into cultivation, than in 
all the parts of Newfoundland with which several 
pretty extensive tours had made me previously 
acquainted. There is another advantage too, 
peculiar to this part of the coast ; there is so 
little fog and dampness of atmosphere, that fish 
may be laid out to dry here with much less risk 
than elsewhere of its becoming tainted. 

I was fortunate enough to meet here with 
Leandre Philippo, an inhabitant of St. Peter's, 
who, with the usual courtesy of the French, 
politely favoured me with a passage in his fish- 
ing schooner, far as Port-au-Port, beyond St. 
George's Bay, whither he was going for bait. 
On looking at the chart, it will be seen, that the 
walk from the Middle Point, which separates 
West Bay and East Bay in this Port-au-Port, to 
the Isthmus, or *' Gravel,'* as it is termed, 
which is at the bottom of St. George's Bay, 
is no great distance. It is a most laborious 
walk, however, and in some parts actually 
perilous. I was put down at Middle Point, at 
nine, a. m., of 

Wednesday, 13 — And proceeded down the 



ALONG THE COAST. 



137 



eastern shore. In several places I was up to 
ray arras in the salt water in getting round 
points of rock, which it was impossible to climb. 
In some places I had to leap from rock to rock, 
over such chasms as alarmed my dog, from my 
frequent falls, — now upon the icy crag, and at 
another time upon the slimy beach rock, on 
which my seal-skin boots, saturated with wet, 
gave me a most insecure tread. I was for seve- 
ral days afterwards unable to rest my elbow 
upon a table, and was, in other respects, very 
stiff; and, what was a greater inconvenience 
than all, as it only admits of reparation in 
England, I ruined my watch from getting it 
wet in the salt water, which immediately rusted 
it. I had kept it, too, in a side-pocket of my 
coat above my waist. The snow was so deep 
in the wood, and the tangled brush of the forest 
so harassing, where I did succeed in climbing 
the cliffs, to avoid the deep water round any of 
the projecting points of rock, that I was fre- 
quently near fainting from fatigue. At length, 
however, I thank God, 1 reached a house at 
the isthmus. I was quite as glad to see it, I 
am convinced, as the crew of a vessel wrecked 
last year, near Red Island, to the westward. 



138 MR. AUDUBON, 

off the mouth of St. George's Bay, could have 
been when they reached it. It wafe a walk in- 
deed, in which it would have been a tempting of 
God to have engaged knowingly. The humane 
attentions of a worthy Englishman, Charles 
Vincent, and his excellent wife, a native, soon 
restored me. I had a fine view of a patch fox 
in my walk, saw several seals, and some of those 
very beautiful birds, called by the people of 
Newfoundland " lords and ladies." Since my 
last visit to St. George's Bay, it had been visited 
by the celebrated ornithologist, Audubon, with 
some young American gentlemen, pupils, who 
were fortunate enough to have the advantage 
of prosecuting his delightful researches with 
this man of taste, and to have seen, as some 
here did, the original draughts of the valuable 
work, the leaves of which I have had so much 
pleasure in turnings over. I fear Mr. Audubon 
met with little in Newfoundland to reward his 
exertions. I believe he visited the Magdalen 
Islands, when he left St. George's Bay. I was 
aware, at the time of his visiting the Labradore, 
that it was his intention to have touched in at 
some parts of this island, and I should have 
esteemed it a high privilege to have met him. 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST. 



139 



Those who have seen the birds of the country, 
as I have had frequent opportunities of seeing 
them, in their own spheres — the eagle perched 
upon his crag, — '* the towering seat, for ages, of 
his empire," — or upon some rugged trunk of a 
tree which overhangs the rock, whence he has 
looked down with impassive unconcern from his 
giddy height, upon those who have vainly dis- 
charged at him their rifles, — can enter into the 
feelings of one who is an enthusiast in such a 
pursuit ; and they kindle with sympathy as they 
read the notes of one who, like themselves, has 
been led by observation of the instincts and 
habits of the feathered tribe, while he marvels 
at their beautiful varieties, to acknowledge that 
God is the maker, the preserver, the inspirer of 
them all ! 

Friday, 5. — Went five leagues in a punt to 
Sandy Point, St. George's Harbour. There I 
found the population much increased since my 
last visit, though two respectable elderly per- 
sons whom I remembered, had, with many others 
of the inhabitants, paid the debt of nature in 
the interval. I visited before Sunday all the 
inhabitants. One person presented me with a 



140 



BEAVER HOUSES. 



piece of thick birch-tree, which had been cut 
through by the beaver near a beaver house, which 
was in the neighbourhood. The long teeth of 
these animals are sharp as chisels, and some- 
what curved at the end : through this formation 
they are enabled to scoop the wood away at 
each incision, and trees, thick as the body of a 
stout man, are cut down by them in an incredi- 
bly short period, if they are in the way of their 
beaver path. They have the instinct too, so to 
cut them, as that they may fall in any direction 
they wish, and not lie across their path. The 
tree, of which this is a part, having fallen incon- 
veniently, had been cut through a second time. 
It is a good specimen, therefore, of their ingenuity, 
as it shows the marks of their labour at each end. 
Near the same beaver house, from which this 
was taken, a tree which the beaver had cut 
through, had so fallen that it rested against a 
neighbouring tree. On visiting the beaver house 
a few days after the first falling of the tree, my 
informant found that the supporting tree had, in 
the meantime, paid dearly for the protection it 
had afforded to the condemned one. It had 
been itself cut through, so that it offered now 
no obstacle to their plans of improvement. 



LETTERS FROM MY WIFE, 141 

Sunday y 17. — Held three full services, at 
which, in two other houses besides, I baptized 
fifteen. The lady of whom I made mention (see 
Report of S. P. G. F. P. 1830) when I last vi- 
sited this place, as having kindly engaged to 
keep a Sunday-school, had charitably taught 
some children daily ; the effects of these kind 
exertions, and of this sacrifice of personal com- 
fort in Mrs. Forrest, were very discernible in the 
manner in which the children made their re- 
sponses in the church service. To this they had 
been regularly assembled by her husband, while 
he lived, and by her son since. Married a 
Canadian Kamaraska to one of the inhabitants 
of St. George's Bay. 

Wednesday, 20. — The " Hope," a brig be- 
longing to Messrs. Bird of Stur minster, having 
put in to Harbour Briton, on her outward pas- 
sage from England, brought me a pacquet of 
letters from my dear wife, which had been for- 
warded to Harbour Briton from St. John's, for 
the chance of falling into my hands. This 
welcome pacquet was the first I had received 
from her since my departure in February ! Se- 
veral parcels of letters which had been for- 



142 I BAY OF ISLANDS. 

warded in search of me, reached my hands after 
my return home, having been sent back to St. 
John's, after they had been kept some time for 
me in different out-harbour settlements. 1 sailed 
in her for the Bay of Islands, a little to the 
south of Cape St. Gregorie, which I did not 
reach through adverse winds until 

Saturday, 2"^. — I found that this bay had 
been visited by the Reverend William Bullock, 
in company with his Excellency Sir Thomas 
Cochrane, in 1829. He was the first clergyman, 
in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, who 
had visited the place. The river Humber, which 
discharges itself here, like the river Exploits, in 
the north of the island, is an immense body of 
fresh water. From the great quantity of snow 
which was now melting fast in the interior and 
swelling the current, it was not easy to stem it 
within Guernsey and Governor's islands. There 
are some other islands near the mouth of the 
Bay ; from these the Bay obtains its name. 

Sunday, 24. — Held two full services, and bap- 
tized fourteen children. I was frequently, during 
my journey, struck with surprise, but nowhere 



VARIETIES Of SETTLERS. 143 

more than here, at the very marked difference 
which mi^ht be observed between the inhabitants 
of places only separated by a few leagues from 
each other. One who shall take the tour which 
I have recently taken, might say, on reviewing 
the manners and customs of the people, through 
whose settlements he had passed, that he had 
seen no one people — 

!Mores multorum. hominum vidit, et artes. 

The difference of extraction has occasioned, as 
may be supposed, a marked dissimilarity be- 
tween the descendants of Jersey-men, Frenchmen, 
Irish, Scotch, and English people. The people, 
too, with whom the first settlers and their im- 
mediate descendants may have had contact, or 
intercourse, have attributed much to the forma- 
tion of the dialect, character, and habits of the 
present settlers. The inhabitants of Conception 
Bay, although a neck of land of only a few 
miles extent separates them from Trinity Bay, 
differ from the inhabitants of the latter, as much 
as if they were of a distant nation ; the same 
may be said of the difference between those who 
live in Placentia and those who live in Fortune 
Bay. But a single league may often carry the 



144 DEPRAVITY. 

traveller upon the same shore, from a people 
whose habits are extremely coarse and revolting, 
to a population which has suffered nothing — 
perhaps has gained — from its being far removed 
from the seat of advanced civilization and re- 
finement. Much of the character of a settle- 
ment must, of course, depend, for several gene^ 
rations, on the character of its original settlers. 
The descendants of some profane, run-away 
man-of-war's man, or of some other character as 
regardless or ignorant of decorum and delicacy, 
are likely to shew to a third and fourth genera- 
tion a general licentiousness of conversation and 
conduct, which betray the foul origin of their 
stock . Between the people of the Bay of Islands, 
and those of Bay St. George, there was a differ- 
ence as wide, as between the untutored Indian 
and the more favoured child of refinement. 
There were acts of profligacy practised, indeed, 
in this bay, at which the Micmac Indians ex- 
pressed to me their horror and disgust. The 
arrival of a trading schooner among the people, 
affords an invariable occasion for all parties 
(with only one or two exceptions, and those, I 
regret to say, not among the females!) to get 
into a helpless state of intoxication. Women, 



SHOCKING DEPRAVITY OF FEMALES. 145 

and among them positively girls of fourteen, 
may be seen, under the plea of its helping them 
in their work, habitually taking their " morning" 
of raw spirits before breakfast. I have seen this 
dram repeated a second time before a seven 
o'clock breakfast. The same, the girls among 
the rest, are also smoking tobacco in short pipes, 
blackened with constant use, like what the Irish 
here call '' dudees," all day long. The instant 
they drop into a neighbour's house and are 
seated by the fire, there is a shuffling of the 
clothes, and the pipe, already partly filled, is 
drawn from the side pocket, and applied to the 
ashes for lighting. 

One woman was pointed out to me here, who, 
in her haste to attack a quantity of rum, which 
she had brought on shore with her from a trading 
vessel, and under the influence, at the same 
time, of a certain quantity v/hich she had drank 
on board, left an infant of six months old upon 
the landv/ash and forgot this her sucking child, 
till the body of it was discovered the next morn- 
ing, drowned by the returning tide ! The father, 
immediately after the discovery of the awful dis- 
aster, went on board, unwarned, and apparently 
unaffected, for another gallon of the poison for 

L 



146 SHOCKING DEPRAVITY OF FEMALES. 

the wake, or wicked drinking revel, which the 
custom of the island has too commonly made an 
appendage to a funeral. The same person, for 
I can scarcely call the monster Woman, had 
overlaid another child of two years old, when 
she had retired to bed once in 1822, in a state 
of intoxication. She is now shamelessly coha- 
biting with her own nephew; and there are 
other instances in this bay of adulterous and 
incestuous connection with which I am unwil- 
ling to pollute my journal — " for it is a shame 
even to speak of those things which are done of 
them" — unblushingly — it can scarcely be said 
— " in secret." 

The habitual conversation of the people is of 
the most disgusting character; profanity is the 
dialect, decency and delicacy are the rare ex- 
ceptions ; children swear at their parents, and 

frequently strike them * * 

# * * * * 

There is not a probability, but, unless Mis- 
sionaries and Schools be multiplied in the island, 
the state of the next generation must be worse, 
if possible, in places of this description than it 
even now is. I may be asked why I give even a 
partial publicity to such disgusting details of 



SCOPE FOR MISSIONyVRY LABOURS. 147 

crime? I have been silent as regards much 
which came to my knowledge : the interests of 
morality may not, indeed, I know, be directly 
served by the exposure of any of these details 
of immorality ; but may not the attention of the 
humane legislature — of the true patriot, of the 
Christian philanthropist be roused by the know- 
ledge of the existence of such horrible enormities, 
to devise some plan for the emancipation of 
our rapidly increasing population from their 
present godless ignorance, — from a slavery 
worse than that of the body ? — and may not the 
next generation, if not the present settlers, be 
benefited by the glare of strong light which 
is thus thrown upon deeds of darkness, which, 
else, could never be suspected or conceived? — 
If the contrast between the state of some of 
these populous settlements and that of the in- 
habitants of the most thinly populated village 
in England, where the poor have the gospel 
preached to them, lead any to see, and to 
acknowledge, the value of an established religion 
which supplies a church, and a spiritual pastor, 
and a spiritual provision to the poorest, without 
money and without price, — I shall not have 
raised a blush for depraved human nature, by 
L 2 



148 WANT OF MISSIONARIES 

exposing these her natural fruits, in vain ! I 
met with more feminine delicacy, however, I 
must own, in the wigwams of the Micmac and 
Canokok Indians than in the tilts of many of 
our own people. Except some sympathy be 
excited for the improvement of our people in this 
and like places, they may fast merge into a 
state similar to that in which the first mission- 
aries found the inhabitants of the islands in the 
South Seas ; unless, indeed, which seems not 
improbable, nature vindicates herself, and the 
vices and excesses, by which their natural vigor 
and constitutional energies do seem already im- 
paired, shall, in a generation or two, exterminate 
them as completely as drunkenness has some of 
the tribes of Indians. 

Wednesday, 27. — I was happy in being able 
to stay on board the brig while she remained 
here. My object, of course, was the improve- 
ment of the people ; but none, who have not 
been similarly situated, can imagine the diffi- 
culty of awakening, or of fixing, the thoughts 
of persons thus utterly unused to any sacred 
appeals or sanctions. Schools in such places 
must, at least, accompany, if they do not pre- 



AND SCHOOLS. 149 

cede, the missionary ; unless, indeed, which is 
the case with some of the Protestant Episcopal 
missionaries, in the service of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel, the same person 
be fitted to undertake the joint duties of the 
schoolmaster, and of the authorized ordained 
spiritual guide. But, in this case, he could 
only be a fixed pastor, which the means of no 
existing society could afford wherever such was 
needed ; for, it is obvious, that in proportion as 
he was zealous in itinerating as a missionary, all 
schemes for the improvement of the young, by 
a school in the centre of his station, must suffer 
frequent suspension and interruption. When 
the brig left, I did not proceed in her to Forteau, 
in the Straits of Belle Isle. The settlements 
were so thinly scattered, and so thinly peopled 
beyond this point, that I did not think that any 
proportionate degree of good could be effected 
to repay me for the consumption of time, which 
would be occasioned by my passing through the 
Straits, and returning to St. John's, by the 
northern side of the island ; thus making my 
visit a complete tour of circumnavigation. I had 
not leisure, either, to go to the Labradore again, 
and to remove my former disappointment, when 



150 LITTLE HARBOUR. 

I was obliged to return without reaching either 
of the Moravian Missionary stations. 

I was glad, therefore, to return to St. George's 
Bay, trusting that some opportunity might unex- 
pectedly occur for my getting out of that bay 
towards St. John's, if not directly to it. As no 
more eligible opportunity offered of leaving Bay 
of Islands, I started at six a.m., in a drenching 
rain in an open boat, with Michael James, a 
temporary resident in this bay, who was kind 
enough to assist in rowing me in an American 
marble-head whaling boat. He took me twenty- 
four miles to Little Harbour, where, as well as 
at Batteau Cove, I was very kindly treated by 
the French, who were fishing there. Here they 
had six French brigs moored, one a vessel 
of 350 tons. The masters of these French 
schooners and brigs have many of them been 
lieutenants in the French navy ; and all their 
masters of merchant vessels are obliged to serve 
a certain time in men-of-war, — they are men, 
therefore, of a far superior class to the generality 
of the English, who are employed in the same 
way. I slept on the floor at Little Harbour, at 
the house of a sister of Michael James, and 
proceeded at five, a.m., of 



AWFUL PUNISHMENT. 151 

Thursday, 28. — The hills white with snow, 
by which the rain had been followed. The cliiFs 
here are exceedingly high. One was pointed out 
to rae from which a Frenchman, who had killed 
his brother, was condemned to leap into the sea, 
a height of more than three hundred feet, quite 
perpendicular ! It was offered to him to choose 
this alternative, or to be shot. Such was the 
decision of the captain, who, (as was wont to be 
the case with the English, in our early settlement 
of Newfoundland,) having arrived the first in 
the spring at the neighbouring harbour, ad- 
ministered summary justice for the season of 
the fishing, under the name of the "fishing 
admiral." 

By eleven, p. m., after calling in for an hour's 
rest at Coal River, where I was kindly treated 
by some of the French, and picked up a 
specimen of gold " marcasit," — we reached an 
empty salmon-house in Port-au-Port. Of this 
we took possession for the night, and slept very 
soundly upon the floor. 

Friday, 29. — ^The next morning early I parted 
with my worthy friend, M. J., who was obliged 
to return, as he was in hourly expectation of 



152 M. J. AN INTELLIGENT 

the arrival of a brig in the Bay of Islands, direct 
from Jersey, in which the owners, who were his 
employers, wished him to proceed to the Labra- 
dore fishery. The superior demeanour of this 
person, compared with that of the people by 
whom he is surrounded^ and his superior re- 
ligious intelligence, were most gratifying. It 
may stimulate the exertions of those engaged in 
Sunday-schools, to know, that he attributes it 
himself to the attention which he received when 
a cabin boy, from a worthy clergyman in Eng- 
land. He was a native of Newfoundland, and 
received as fair an education as his highly re- 
spectable parents could themselves give him in 
a little out-harbour. He went home, however, 
when young, and while waiting for the sailing 
of his vessel, he was seen at church regularly 
on Sundays, and weekly prayer days, in his 
sailor's clothes in the pew of some English 
relatives in the port : the clergyman on observ- 
ing this, noticed him, and took pains to give 
him instruction in his Sunday-school, and on 
other occasions. He is now able to assemble a 
congregation, or to read by a sick-bed, and has 
taught several of his nephews and nieces, and 
other neiorhbours to read, and he has told me, 



AND PIOUS SETTLER. 153 

that he knew he could never forget the kind- 
ness of that clergyman, — he trusted he never 
should forget the advice which he had given 
him. 

How many grateful testimonies of this nature 
has it been my happiness to have had mentioned 
to me at different times in the last nine years, 
by the settlers in these distant colonies ! The 
parish boy, or the giddy girl, the impression, or 
improvement of whose heart, the village pastor 
has thought hopeless, as he presented the case 
in his private addresses to the throne of grace, 
has returned in a foreign land some portion of 
the obligation under which the kindness of the 
pastor of their youth has laid them to the 
church, by entertaining and introducing into 
their neighbourhood one of that missionary 
church's missionary clergy ; and, as after the 
dismissal of the settlement from his more public 
ministrations, confidence has been encouraged, 
and reserve has been removed ; tales have been 
told of the village school and of the catechizing 
in the aisle of the church, and of the pastor's 
affectionate stroke upon the head of my host, — 
rugged and weather-beaten now, — but then a 
sleek curly-headed youth, and the reward-book 



154 MISSIONARY CONTEMPLATIONS 

with the pastor's valued autograph, has been 
brought forth, and the clasped bible and the 
torn prayer-book, which he would not by any 
means part with, but would wish for another, — 
till — O ! the missionary and the man of rugged 
features, have both become children ! and on 
the thought of home, and of the church-yard 
stile, and the village spire, and the intervening 
sea ! and the present sad, sad wilderness in 
which they are wandering, or wearing away life, 
far from the privileges of which such fondly 
recollected scenes remind them, they are both 
in tears, and both upon their knees praying for 
a blessing upon the dear church of their fathers, 
that God would keep it with His perpetual 
mercy, cleanse it and defend it with His con- 
tinual pity, and, because it cannot continue in 
safety without His succour, preserve it ever, 
evermore by His help and goodness, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord ! 

The thought that each scholar in the Sunday- 
school may be the parent of a family, has 
stimulated to exertion ; but how much greater 
is the motive to such exertion, when it is con- 
sidered that in the changes and chances of life, 
some of the scholars present may become emi- 



AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. 155 

grant settlers upon this barren coast, or in our 
cleared lands in the adjoining provinces and 
islands ; that they may be the means of keeping 
up a knowledge of Christ, in the new world, 
where they may become founders of settlements, 
and set the mould of the manners of generations 
to come. M. J. mentioned with gratitude a 
present which a neighbour had received of one 
hundred and fifty American tracts, from a cler- 
gyman of Boston. They had been dispersed 
along this shore of Newfoundland, and some of 
them despatched quite across through the in- 
terior to the settlers upon the northern shore, 
where, it is hoped, they may be fulfilling the 
benevolent intentions of their excellent donor. 
We call people here who live seventy or eighty 
miles apart, along the same coast, neighbours, 
and such they do indeed seem. Some, however, 
are not very social. A case has been known on 
the American continent of a man's moving 
farther back into the uncleared land, because 
he found himself getting crowded when a family 
settled near enough to him for his next neigh- 
bour to come to his house and return on the 
same day. I have often felt surprised at con- 
trasting the feeling with which a person, ac- 



156 COMPARATIVE IDEAS OF 

customed to travel in England, goes over thirty, 
forty, or fifty miles in that country of continued 
interest and variety, and that with which he 
travels the same distance through the woods of 
North America. It might be imagined that the 
variety of the views, the scattered farms, the 
numerous churches of which he would get a 
view as he passed along, and the neat cottages, 
and the substantial yeoman's residences, and 
the occasional seats, would so interest the sight, 
that the distance would appear as nothing, and 
the transportation on those easy roads, compa- 
ratively a light work, as it were of a moment. 
I have felt, however, that this is not the case. 
No one can enter more fully than myself into 
the beauty of the English landscape. No one 
can enjoy analysing its various attractions, and 
admiring them each in detail, more than I do ; 
and the whole ride would seem to me a de- 
licious saunter through a paradise ; yet is a ride 
of ten or twenty miles in a young country (if a 
horse can be got along), or a walk, when the 
road forbids the luxury of such an escort, less 
of a journey, except in the matter of fatigue, 
than one of the same distance is in England, or 
any other thickly peopled country. The slight 



DISTANCE IN TRAVELLING. 157 

variety of object or of incident, in the journey 
here, seems not to affect the eye with any 
tedium, but rather to have the effect of annihi- 
lating the idea of distance. Even the intermin- 
able forest, however, has its varieties, and for 
some eyes its beauties ; and perhaps, were my 
theory to be fairly tested, it should be tried 
upon some dead level or English flat (if such 
could be found !) The barest part of Salisbury 
Plain, the rudest district of Cornwall, the heaths 
of Cambridgeshire, no place in England which 
I have ever seen, could be such, however, in 
my estimation, which presented no object of 
interest whatever for the eye ; but then, these 
ever green forests, and these rugged crags, 
from which the birch and other trees spring, as 
they do from the rocks in the neighbourhood of 
Tonbridge Wells, — these have an interest in my 
eye, which would make me prefer my ride or 
w^alk often miles here, to a ride or walk of the 
same distance there, in a district, could it be 
found, such as I have been supposing. 

I cannot account for it perhaps correctly, but 
such is certainly the fact, that I have difficulty 
in imagining my ride of ten miles, which I take 
when at St. John's every Sunday to Portugal 



158 PORT-AU-PORT. 

Cove, is a greater distance than from Oxford to 
Woodstock, or as great as from Inworth, my 
first curacy in England, to Colchester, or from 
Lowestoft to Yarmouth, or to Beccles, two other 
rides of ten miles or under, which will often 
recur to my recollections. — When M. J. left 
me, I walked down the western shore of Port- 
au-Port, to "the Isthmus" or " the Gravel," 
the walk was somewhat better than that upon 
the other shore of Port-au-Port, which is re- 
corded at May 13. It was not unattended, 
however, with much difficulty and danger. 
My nerves had become so shattered by my 
late exertions, that, on the sight of dizzy pre- 
cipices in my way, I would sometimes burst 
into most involuntary tears, and experience all 
the premonitory symptoms of fainting. On one 
of these occasions, when hanging by my fingers 
and knees on the edge of a steep clifF, from 
which a fall, which seemed inevitable, must 
have been fatal, these sensations came on, and 
I felt as though I was just fainting! I closed 
my eyes to the danger, and in the kneeling pos- 
ture in which of necessity I was at the time, I 
put up an ejaculatory prayer, and I felt the 
blood revisit my heart; my nerves were instantly 



ST. George's harbour. 159 

fevigorated, and, supported by an invisible arm, 
1 was enabled to reach the bottom in safety. 
Before night I reached my kind friends the 
Vincents, little less fatigued than when I drop- 
ped in upon them before. 

Friday, 29. — Storm in the morning, but was 
able in the afternoon to get to Sandy Point, St. 
George's Harbour, and administered consolation 
this day and the next to an elderly inhabitant 
who had been taken seriously ill in my absence. 

Sunday, 31. — Three full services and two 
baptisms ; was struck by a verse in one of the 
American hymns, sung by Mrs. Forrest and the 
congregation. It seemed peculiarly appropriate 
to religious services, like those in which I was 
engaged, which, of necessity, are celebrated in 
private houses : — 

Thou wilt not, gracious Goi ! despise 
The humble dwelling where we meet : 

Accept our grateful sacrifice. 
And make our meditatis:ii sweet. 

June, Monday, 1. — Started at three, a.m., in 
a fishing schooner for the Barrisways, three 
settlements about twenty -three miles from this 



160 ELIGIBILITY OF 

harbour, and half-way down the bay. A violent 
gale of wind prevented our getting in until 

Tuesday, 2 — seven in the morning of the 
next day. At the third Barrisway, or Crabs, I 
found three families, who, like those of the 
other settlements, were most industrious, moral, 
cleanly people. They are of Jersey extraction, 
principally mixed with emigrants from agri- 
cultural districts in the west of England. They 
would not suffer in comparison with any settlers 
on the island, and it is much to be lamented 
that so fine a nest of settlements should not be 
acknowledged and recognised by the Govern- 
ment. They have some of the best land in the 
island, along the shore and in their rear ; yet, 
through the discouragement which the English 
Government gives to settlers to the west of 
Cape Ray, and an over-delicate dread of en- 
couraging any extensive settlements which might 
dissatisfy the French, — this, which is certainly 
the best portion of the island, is entirely lost to 
us as regards revenue. The people are most 
anxious themselves, to be taken under the 
paternal care of the English Government, and 
would gladly furnish their proportion to the 



CAPE RAY. 161 

revenue in return for security in possession of 
the land which they clear, and which here, as 
can be said of it in no other part of Newfound- 
land, and cannot be said of some parts of Cape 
Breton, and Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, 
which I have seen, would amply reward the 
labour and expense of culture. They live here, 
indeed, entirely on the produce of the soil, and 
of the cattle which they keep, and they live 
well. They are so far independent of the mer- 
chant, that they never apply to him for butter, 
pork, or beef. Indeed, if they could only find 
a market for their produce, they could rear 
more cattle and vegetables, and could cure 
more meat, than their families require. There 
is no other part of Newfoundland like it. All 
the people of this bay prosecute the salmon 
fishery ; this is generally very lucrative, as col- 
lecting furs also is in the winter. The number 
of the French who catch fish upon the coast, 
and within the bay, prevents their looking for 
more codfish than they require for immediate 
family use ; and although they do now prose- 
cute, in some degree, the herring fishery, which 
struck in while I was at Sandy Point, the French 
injure this branch of the fishery so much by the 

M 



162 SALMON FISHERY. 

use of their seines, that it is not unlikely that 
the herring catch will be soon abandoned by 
our people. I held full service this evening, 
and baptized ten. 

Wednesday, 3. — There is a flower here re- 
sembling the English auricula, but smaller ; it 
is the precursor of the salmon, and is, in con- 
sequence, called the salmon-flower : it was 
observed to be just coming into bloom. Accord- 
ingly, in the course of my visit to this place, the 
salmon struck in, not, however, so abundantly 
as usual. Full service in the p. m., and five 
adults baptized, after an explanation to them of 
the nature of their baptismal obligation. The 
extent of the religious intelligence of the people 
here surprised me : the first settlers, both those 
from Jersey, and those from Devon and Dorset, 
were of a superior class, and their descendants 
do not degenerate. I met here with a man in 
humble life, who pleased me. He had been 
brought up at the free-school of Lady Caroline 
Damer, at Abbey Milton, near Blandford, Dor- 
set, and seemed to have profited much by this 
training in his early years. It has enabled him 
to instruct those less favoured among whom he 



BEARS AND WOLVES. 163 

is settled. He shewed me with grateful pride 
a prayer-book, in which her ladyship had put 
her autograph inscription, when slie presented 
him the treasure upon his leaving her school. 

Thursday J 4. — Proceeded to the Middle Bar- 
ns way, where was a most respectable man, 
with a family of eleven children. The people 
gathered together from each of the other Bar- 
risways for service, at which we had thirty 
present; three children baptized. 

Friday, 5. — Full service, and baptized four 
more children. James Huelen, and his brother 
John Huelen of Crabs, once came suddenly, 
when hunting, upon two bears and three wolves, 
which were devouring the carcase of a deer. 
When they reached within thirty yards of them, 
they fired one of their guns, and brought down 
a bear, taking care, for the chance of an attack 
from the exasperated or alarmed animals, to 
keep the other gun, till they could reload the 
one discharged. They then fired and killed the 
other bear ; the wolves still kept their ground, 
and the men, in this way, brought down two of 
the wolves. The remaining wolf then walked 
M 2 



164 NATURAL HISTORY, 

away, but so leisurely was his retreat, that they 
might, if they had been disposed to complete the 
slaughter, have followed and shot him too. 
The same man has, also, come suddenly upon a 
bear, which has been in the upper branches of a 
dog-berry or mountain ash, deliberately bending 
and breaking the boughs, that he might eat the 
berries. I purchased here the skin of a very 
fine bear, which had been shot in the winter 
within sight of the house ; he had attempted to 
force the door of one of the outhouses, and, a 
watch being placed for him on the following 
night, he was caught. I got here, also, the 
tusk of a walroos, or morse. These marine 
animals used to be very common on the coast of 
Newfoundland, but they are now supposed to 
be extinct here. Here, too, I picked some 
specimens of a coarse coal from the cliff close to 
the sea. There is, however, a little distance up 
the river, a bed of coal, the vein of which may 
be seen in the bank, and under the bed of the 
river in clear shallow water. The inhabitants 
have recourse to it when they require a fierce 
fire for hardening their axes and iron tools, and 
they occasionally take small portions of it into 
the country with them for their fires, when they 



AND MINERALS. 165 

sleep in the interior, on their deer-hunting 
expeditions. I collected specimens of gypsum, 
also, in this bay, and of a white friable stone 
resembling talc or Labradore spar, in the man- 
ner in which it breaks off into plates ; but 
peculiar, as the laminae are not so elastic as 
those of the blue talc, and the whole stone is of 
a transparent whiteness. I also tasted here a 
strong chalybeate water, and there is in the 
neighbourhood a salt spring also. 

Saturday, 6. — Walked to the First Barris- 
way, where three families live, and the widow, 
Anne Huelen, a native, the mother of the settle- 
ments. The recollection of this cheerful old 
lady is unimpaired, and carries her back to the 
history of the island for the greater part of a 
century, and this a most interesting portion of 
the history of Newfoundland, — as it takes in 
the troubled periods in which the French and 
American privateers inflicted such incalculable 
hardships on the simple inhabitants of this 
coast. In 1814, soon after the loss of her hus- 
band, she was proceeding with one of her 
daughters, and her catch of cured salmon, to 



166 ANNE HUELEN. 

St. John's, for the arrangement of her affairs, 
when she was captured by an American priva- 
teer, and carried to New York. Her cargo was 
sold there by a writ of *' venditioni exponas." 
She showed me her pass -papers, which were 
signed by James Monroe, then secretary to the 
President of the United States. She speaks 
with lively gratitude of the very humane atten- 
tions which were uniformly paid her while she 
was detained in New York, especially by a 
Mrs. Sophia Doty, after whom and Mr. Doty, 
she had two of her grandchildren, Sophia and 
Elihu, named, after her return to Newfoundland. 
She was allowed, too, very kindly, to buy in 
her own schooner at the nominal price of one 
dollar, which a benevolent American put into 
the poor creature's hand at the moment, for the 
purpose of effecting the formal purchase. 

The want of Bibles in this and similar places 
is much felt by the people, who attach great 
value to the rare possession. A seaman, who 
was wrecked in the barque Fanny, on her home- 
ward-bound passage from Quebec to Greenock, 
was most hospitably entertained here during the 
winter of 1833-4, from October, 1833, to June, 



i 



A USEFUL BIBLE. 167 

1834. He had a Bible which he prized much, 
and read in it daily aloud as well as by himself. 
It bore this inscription : — 

*' To George Green, from a very sincere 
friend, who, with all his heart, beseeches George 
to take this book as his chart and compass ; 
and, as sure as God has said it, he will reach 
at last the shores of Heaven. — October, 1833." 

It now bears the following additional in- 
scription ; — 

*' George Green, having been wrecked in 
October, 1833, off Red Island, near Port-au- 
Port, Newfoundland, on his passage from Que- 
bec to Greenock, in the barque Fanny, was 
hospitably entertained by the inhabitants of the 
First Barrisway, St. George's Bay. During the 
winter, this bible was daily used by him, and 
frequently read aloud to the other inhabitants, 
who had no bibles. When he left, in June, 
1834, after much persuasion, he was induced to 
present this highly prized volume to Clemence 
Morris. May God bless this book to him, and 
the other inhabitants of the settlement, that so 
it may abundantly fulfil the pious purposes of 
its donor! — June, 1835." 



168 REV. MR. desbrisay; 

I had full service to-day, and baptized five 
children. 



Sunday 7, (Whitsunday.) — Full service three 
times, and baptized nine persons. I met at 
Sandy Point, and afterwards at this settlement, 
a Halifax trader, G. B. He was an old pa- 
rishioner of my deceased friend the Reverend 
Mather Byles Desbrisay, of Dartmouth, Nova 
Scotia. He had been indebted to Mr, D. for 
indefatigable attention to him, when he was 
supposed to be upon a dying bed, and was un- 
ceasingly visited by him, although he resided 
at an out-harbour, several miles from his pas- 
tor's residence : but it had pleased God to raise 
him, and suddenly to cut down the exemplary 
pastor in the midst of his career of usefulness. 
G. B. had been much attached to the ministry 
of my departed friend. He had been dead 
more than a twelvemonth, yet the poor fellow 
could not speak of his late beloved pastor with- 
out tears ; and the memory of my sainted 
brother in the ministry, with whom I had so 
often joined in missionary excursions, and taken 
sweet counsel in Nova Scotia, was so dear to 



OBITUARY OF HIM. 169 

myself, that I mingled my own tears with those 
of this rough trader. It was gratifying to see 
such a tribute of veneration paid to the memory 
of this departed servant of the Lord, and it was 
no less so to hear the high testimony which he 
gave to the worth of the Reverend Addington 
Davenport Parker, his successor in the Dart- 
mouth mission, whose acquaintance, with many 
others which I value much, I had also the 
opportunity of making, while I resided in the 
capital of Nova Scotia, or travelled in the 
capacity of chaplain with the excellent bishop. 
Obituary notices, in which attempts were made 
to do justice to the character of Desbrisay, 
appeared, at the time of his decease, in the 
various Halifax prints. I regret that they are 
not now accessible to me, but, — " Quis deside- 
rio sit pudor !" — there is one which I may here 
introduce, as it appeared in the London "Chris- 
tian Remembrancer," for May, 1834 : — 

" CLERGYMAN DECEASED. 

" The diocese of Nova Scotia has recently 
sustained a very serious loss, in the sudden 
decease of the Reverend Mather Byles Des- 
BRiSAY, M.A., of King's College, Nova Scotia, 



170 OBITUARY OF THE 

and Missionary in the service of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 
for the district of Dartmouth, in the harbour of 
Halifax. Like the right-minded, and zealous 
Bishop HoBART, of New York, this sound 
churchman and exemplary Christian, was de- 
scended from an ancestry (the Mathers of 
Boston, New England), who would have looked 
forward with a degree of superstitious horror to 
the chance that any of their posterity might 
admit what they would have termed the abomi- 
nation of episcopacy, and embrace the un- 
evangelical doctrines of the Protestant episcopal 
communion. His second name of Byles, he 
derived from the Protestant episcopal missiona- 
i ries of that name in North America, a record 

i of whose labours, in the early state of the 

j Protestant episcopal church of North America, 

1 may be found in the reports and correspondence 

of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 
Being the son of an officer in the British army, 
he was brought up in his earlier years under 
the discipline of the College of Cadets in Eng- 
land, and was destined by his family for that 
service. A decided preference, however, for the 
pastoral office, led him, in maturer years, to 



REV. M. B. DESBRISAY. 171 

seek a degree in the University of Windsor ; an 
institution which has been eminently useful in 
furnishing the colonial church in North America 
with many most exemplary missionaries ; the 
support of which, however, has been so de- 
plorably curtailed, through the late withdrawal 
of the Parliamentary grant to the S. P. G. F. P.; 
that it is feared it may no longer be a nursery, 
as it has been wont to be, for the education of 
the children, and for the training of the future 
ministers of the church. 

" The amiable manners of Mather Byles 
Desbrisay, his scrupulous morality, his diligent 
attention to every collegiate, above all, to every 
religious obligation, while he was in statu pupil- 
lari, commanded the esteem and regard of all, 
of every age, connected with the college : and 
his sound evangelical piety, and love for the 
apostolic church, gave early promise of the 
great exertions which he afterwards put forth, 
and of the success and uniform acceptance 
which would attend his future ministry. 

*' The estimation which he has left behind 
him of his labours and his character, is indeed 
delightful : his admiring flock, and his brother 
clergy, feel, alike, that they have lost an exam- 



172 OBITUARY OF THE 

pie, which it was a privilege to have before them. 
An extensive round of churches, and a circle of 
congregations more numerous than the churches, 
under his charge, among some of whom he had 
first planted the standard, and, with persuasive 
eloquence, proclaimed periodically among them 
all the doctrines of the church, will long feel 
their bereavement of this zealous missionary. 
That he might do all in the power of man, — aye, 
and he has been known to exert himself even 
beyond that power, although of extreme delicacy 
of constitution, that, — in a country so inade- 
quately provided with pastors, he might do all 
he could for the edification of the scattered 
members of the church, — he has been for seve- 
ral years in the habit of holding service on 
week-days, in different and distant parts of his 
extensive mission, besides the performance of 
three services on the Lord's day ; when he took, 
together with the centre church of Dartmouth, 
the churches at the eastern passage, at Lawrence 
Town, and at Porter's Lake, in rotation ; sel- 
dom retiring to his bed, on Sunday night, with- 
out having travelled from twenty to five-and- 
twenty miles, often considerably more. He 
met his death at the early age of thirty-one or 



REV. M. B. DESERISAY. 173 

thirty-two, as nearly as the writer can ascertain ; 
and it was occasioned by a brain-fever, the effect 
of a fall from his horse, which occurred, it is 
believed, while he was in the execution of some 
one or other of his arduous duties. The writer 
has frequently heard him express, with grati- 
tude, (and more than once, when, in moments 
of fatigue, he has drawn from his waistcoat 
pocket a portable folding cup, for drinking of 
the pure stream of the forest, in his missionary 
wanderings,) that he was much indebted to his 
early discipline for the military life, for the 
buoyancy with which he could now go through 
his missionary toils, with no other refreshment 
than the pure brook, and the biscuit which he 
carried with him, would afford. A memoir of 
this indefatigable and pious missionary, would, 
in the opinion of those who knew him, be read 
with deep interest and profit, and would not suf- 
fer from comparison with the recent memoirs of 
Pastors Oberlin and NefF. He died early in 
February, and was buried, where he had often 
expressed the wish that his remains should lie, 
beneath the altar of the church at Dartmouth, 
from the pulpit over which altar he^had so often 
affectionately called on his flock to watch, * for 



174 LABOURS OF THE 

they knew not the hour when the Son of Man 
would come ;' and had dealt so frequently from 
its rails the blessed sacrament of Christ's body 
and blood, for the comfort and refreshing of 
their souls. May God, (as, in the course of 
conversation, while in perfect health, a few days 
previous to his sudden decease, he was heard to 
remark, he doubted not, God could, and would, 
in the event of his being called away from his 
scene of duty,) raise up a faithful successor, and 
many, many such labourers, in the room of him 
who has gone to rest, and his reward !" 

Such, — nine years' acquaintance with the 
diocese of Nova Scotia enables me to say, — 
might be the record of the ordinary labours of 
nine out of ten of the missionaries of the dio- 
cese. In seeking, for the journal of six months 
of my own late visitation, a degree of publicity 
greater than could be given to a letter to the 
secretary of the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which might be 
appended to that society's report, I must dis- 
claim any wish to establish a character for zeal 
or activity, beyond that which belongs to the 
rest of my colonial brethren in the ministry. 
There are, I solemnly believe, few of my mis- 



CHURCH MISSIONARIES. 175 

sionary brethren whose journals for the same 
period might not supply records of equal, and 
superior exertions in the cause of our Heavenly 
Master. If my late excursion has been of a 
greater extent than others have undertaken, I 
would have it attributed to the absence of any 
immediately pressing parochial calls at the place 
of my residence, which must have constrained 
any of my brethren, though most unwillingly, 
to have broken off any such projected visitation 
in the midst, and to have hastened back to the 
constantly recurring calls of the centre of his 
mission station ; which, necessary as it is at 
times to leave it, can never, we all know and 
most anxiously must feel, be left for any length 
of time together, without serious detriment to 
our communion ; and, if it seem to any that I 
have alluded too much (for if I know myself I 
have not dwelt upon them) to the privations, and 
difficulties and escapes of my voyage, I would 
say, that gratitude to God, my preserver, would 
not permit me to pass over, without a mention, 
mercies which must ever dwell in a grateful me- 
mory, and particularly the blessing of a constitu- 
tional energy and an elasticity of spirit for which 
I would take no merit to myself, but desire to 



176 VINDICATION OF 

dedicate them to the service of Christ's church, 
and so to sanctify them while they are merci- 
fully preserved to me. 

And here, 1 would remark, in reference to a 
report which has been most undeservedly circu- 
lated respecting the Protestant Episcopal clergy 
in Newfoundland, that *' they are idle, and 
worldly, and unevangelical," — I would remark, 
or rather simply insert in this place, a circular 
from the Bishop of Nova Scotia to his clergy, 
the appearance of which drew forth the tribute 
to the zeal of the colonial clergy, which I also 
annex, and which I copy from an excellent re- 
ligious periodical, published in New York, enti- 
tled The Churchman. 

CIRCULAR OF THE BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA. 

Halifax, March 6, 1834. 
Reverend and Dear Sir. — You will learn with 
equal surprise and regret, that, while the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel are endeavouring to procure 
all possible assistance for the support of the Church in 
these colonies, at this time of its distress, they are im- 
peded in their work by malevolent reports, industri- 
ously circulated against their missionaries, representing 
them as inefficient, worldly, idle, and unevangelical — 



THE CLERGY. 177 

(epithets which are unsparingly applied, in these 
days of rebuke, both to the English and the Colonial 
Clergy) — and, also, stating them to be fully, if not over 
paid for all their services. 

Undeserving as we may feel of such misrepresenta- 
tion, I trust we are all ready to regard it as a call to the 
exercise of our humility and patience and charity, and 
as a stimulus to increased zeal and fervour in our la- 
bours and prayers, with full faith and confidence in the 
protection of the Most High. 

But it does not appear inconsistent with the most 
lowly opinion we can entertain of our best exertions, 
as they must appear in the sight of a holy and perfect 
God, to use all proper means for protecting our cha- 
racter and our labours from the unjust aspersions of 
misguided men. 

The Society would not be without means for dis- 
proving any specific charge, if such were made, and 
would be quite ready to employ these means, but such 
general and vague calumnies as I have mentioned, can 
only be triumphantly repelled by plain and particular 
statements of all that is done and doing, in their missions. 

Being anxious to supply such statements as speedily 
as possible, I naturally turn to my brethren in the 
ministry for their assistance. In affording their help, 
I assure myself they will feel the importance of being 
scrupulously correct in their detail. Whenever there 
shall be any doubt in their mind, from want of memo- 
randa, or clear recollection, they will require no cau- 



178 VINDICATION OF 

tion from me to guard them from any thing like over- 
statement, and they will be desirous of being much 
within the truth, in preference to the least risk of exceed- 
ing these limits. I, therefore, beg to be early favoured 
with explicit answers to the following questions : — 

1. How many Sundays were you present in your 
mission during the year 1833? 

2. How many services did you perform in the same 
year, and how often did you preach ? 

3. How many miles did you travel in the same pe- 
riod, in every way, by land and by water, in the per- 
formance of your missionary duties ? 

4. How many missionary visits did you make to 
separate settlements, and how many pastoral visits to 
individual families ? 

5. To how many sick or afflicted persons did you 
administer the consolations of religion ? 

6 Have any remarkable occurrences in your mission 
in the last year required your special attention ? — If 
any, detail them. 

7. Have any remarkable cases required your spiritual 
care and consolation ? — If any, state their circum- 
stances, your treatment of them, and whether you had 
reason to hope, in all Christian humility, that your mi- 
nistry in these cases has been blessed to the patients, or 
to those around them. 

8. How many Sunday schools have been established 
under your direction ? How many persons of all ages at- 
tend them, and how much of your time is devoted to them ? 

9. What is the whole amount, or value, of the in- 



THE CLERGY. 179 

come you have derived, in the last year, from glebe, 
surplice-fees, contributions from your congregation, 
pew-rents, or from any and every source within your 
mission, and what are the average prices of the chief 
necessaries of life ? 

10. What are the nature and extent of the inconveni- 
ence and hardship and distress which have already 
overtaken, or must speedily fall upon yourself, your 
family and dependents, in consequence of the late un- 
happy reduction of your salary? — State the number of 
family, and any circumstances which may elucidate and 
support the facts you detail. 

I shall hope to receive the information now required 
without any loss of time : and, as similar reports will 
be necessary every year, I must beg you to forward 
them to me, hereafter, in the first week of every Janu- 
ary'. That you may furnish them with complete accu- 
racy, I particularly recommend your immediate com- 
mencement of a regular pastoral and parochial journal. 
You will be so good as to add your regular notitia of 
baptisms, marriages, burials, the whole number of 
communicants within your mission, population, and 
the number of schools and scholars. 

Earnestly recommending yourself and your flock to 
the continual care and guidance of the heavenly 
Shepherd, under every prosperous and every adverse 
circumstance, I am, 

Reverend and Dear Sir, 

Your affectionate brother, 

J0H^■, NOVA-SCOTIA. 

N 2 



180 VINDICATION OF 

CLERGY IN THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

In another column is inserted the circular of the 
Bishop of Nova Scotia to his clergy, propounding cer- 
tain questions designed to draw from them a statement 
of the duties performed by them as missionaries. The 
occasion of the circular being issued is the alleged pre- 
valence of reports prejudicial to the character and 
interests of the clergy, the refutation of which, it is 
thought, will be most effectually accomplished by the 
statistical documents that will be given in answer to 
the queries which the circular contains. We doubt 
not that the measure will be productive of good results, 
and will eventually raise the reputation of the mission- 
aries by furnishing the Society, and through it the 
public at large, with the data for forming a just esti- 
mate of their labours. But we cannot restrain the ex- 
pression of surprise and grief that the measure should 
have been rendered necessary : that a body of men, 
such as the missionaries of the Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel, should be compelled to appear 
before the public in the attitude of defendants — not to 
specific charges which might be met and repelled — but 
to vague rumours, which, as nobody will particularize, 
so nobody can refute. Such reports are among the 
sorest evils with which the clergy have to contend. 
They harmonize with men's natural disinclination for 
pure religion — a disinclination which in the minds of 



THE CLERGY. 181 

many is harboured until it ripens into malevolence, — 
and are thus sure to obtain an easy credence and ex- 
tensive propagation. But if we had been asked to 
specify a band of clergy who more than any other might 
expect an exemption from such calumnies, we should 
have pointed to the missionaries of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel. Such an event, if we mis- 
take not, is a novel occurrence in the history of the 
Society. We, in this country, know something of this 
Society, and have good reason to cherish, as we do, the 
memory of its missionaries. We wish to say nothing 
to the disparagement of the clergy of the church of Eng- 
land : but let their character for cheerful and manly 
piety, for effective but unostentatious usefulness, be 
rated as highly as the warmest friends of the Church 
are disposed to rate it, we will say it forms too low a 
standard by which to estimate the worth of the Society's 
missionaries. Many causes combined to give distinc- 
tiveness to their character. In the very threshold of 
the entrance into the ministry was an obstacle, the 
encountering of which was a test of their earnestness 
and pledge of their future fidelity. And after their 
return from a perilous voyage, the difficulties to which 
they were exposed were such as to keep their weapons 
in order for constant use. They had to grapple with 
sectaries of every kind, and of very different mettle 
from any that were to be met with in Britain, and who 
had only left the old country because they excelled the 
main body of the Dissenters in the courageous temper 



182 VINDICATION or 

of their minds, and uncompromising opposition to the 
Church. Thus the Society's missionaries were obliged 
to move, armed cap-a-pie, in the panoply of polemical 
warfare ; nor is it surprising that we are enabled — as 
we justly are — to extend to many of them the tribute 
which, in a late British Critic, was paid to one of their 
number, that their learning was " worthy" (what nobler 
eulogy could be pronounced ?) " of the best days of 
English theology." But their piety and self-denial, 
were better disciplined than their learning. Their 
labours were of the most arduous kind. Large dis- 
tricts were assigned to them, severally at a time, 
when the country was little better than a wilderness. 
Many among us remember their privations and labours, 
and many more experience their fruits in the blessings 
of the knowledge of Christ and his Church, which 
they have been the means of transmitting to us. The 
patient, self-denying labours which they were com- 
pelled to encounter, infused an energy into their piety 
which approximated it more nearly than any milder 
discipline could have done, to the true standard of a 
missionary of Jesus Christ. To this discipline, in its 
most important features, the missionaries in the Ca- 
nadas and Nova Scotia have been, and still continue to 
be, subjected, as well as those who were in our coun- 
try ; while the Society itself is guided in the appoint- 
ment of its agents on the same principles, and we 
might therefore expect to find in both the same common 
traits of character. But we are not left to conjecture. 



THE CLERGY. 183 

We judge of them not by what we should think that 
they would be, but from what we have heard that they 
are. And much have we been deceived if an equal 
number of clergy can be found of more sterlmg piety 
and more effective usefulness, than the missionaries of 
the venerable Society in the British colonies. We have 
not long since published in our columns an account of 
the labours of one among the colonial clergy, which 
would have shone in the annals of the primitive Church. 
It is therefore not without surprise, as well as indignar 
tion, that we learn that the voice of calumny has assailed 
them, and cheerfully adopt the words of the editor of 
the St. John's Times, as expressive of our own sense 
of the injustice and futility of the charge. 

" The best, and most triumphant refutation of such 
calumnies will, indeed, be found, as is hinted by their 
diocesan, in the simple transcription from their differ- 
ent note-books, of their diaries and journals; and it is 
confidently hoped that the Society which employs them 
will do them the justice of printing their replies entire. 
Such a representation of the exertions of these men 
during any one year, would furnish, we feel con- 
vinced, the most complete specimens of a Missionary 
Annual which could be produced by an equal number 
of devoted servants of the cross; it would gain to 
the Society, which is now in so great need of sup- 
port from the Christian public, a host of new contri- 
butors ; and it would stand forth, to posterity, a most 
imperishable monument of the zeal of the colonial 



184 SERVICES AT 

clergy of the present generation, and of the acrimony, 
falsehood, and malevolence which could assail a body 
of men who, in the main, deserve, as, indeed, they, in 
the main, receive, the admiration and respect of all of 
every creed who are within the circle of their exer- 
tions. " 



Sunday, 14, {Trinity Sunday.) — Full service 
three times, three baptisms. 

Sunday, 2\. — Had returned to Sandy Point. 
Renewed a notice which I had previously given 
of my intention shortly to administer the Holy 
Communion, and invited inquirers to come to 
me for information and instruction. Preached 
familiarly upon the subject at each of my three 
services, and gave notice of a full service on 

Wednesday, 24. — St. John Baptist's Day. 

Sunday 28. — Three full services. Baptized 
three children in public service, and another at 
home, and churched a woman who had become 
a mother while I was there ; administered the 
Lord's Supper. I find that by a strange omis- 
sion 1 have neglected to record the number of 



SANDY POINT. 185 

communicants in my short notes. I can remem- 
ber distinctly, however, the names and persons 
of five seemingly devout well-informed commu- 
nicants. 

Monday, 29. — St. Peter's Day, gave me an 
opportunity of holding a full service on the next 
day. 

Sunday, 5, July, — ^Three full services at Sandy 
Point, so well attended, that I regret exceed- 
ingly there should be no missionary stationed 
amongst this very teachable quiet people. This 
harbour and the Barrisways, with an occasional 
visit to the Bay of Islands, and the settlements 
at Codroy Rivers and Island, would constitute 
a pleasant and no idle charge; and a school, as 
I found on an enumeration of the children with 
one of the inhabitants, might, in Sandy Point 
alone, congregate seventy children, if it could 
be opened to-morrow. 

Monday, 6. — Went, this week, to visit the 
salmon fisheries, which are upon the main gut. 
Three or four families reside there. One night, 
as some of the people and an Indian boy were 



186 TROUT-SPEARING. 

going out just at the rise of high tide, five 
canoes in all, to spear trout and eels, I joined 
them in the excursion. It employed us till an 
hour or two after midnight. The scene was an 
animating one. A brilliant moon hung over the 
hills, which were finely wooded, to the very 
cliffs and sand at the edge of the water. 
Bunches of birch bark were packed together, a 
dozen in each packet ; these were stuck one at 
a time, as required, into a stick which was cleft 
at the top to let in this rude flambeau, to which 
a light was applied. The stick with the ignited 
birch bark was then put upright at the bow of 
the canoe ; there, also, the man stood up, most 
insecurely balanced, as would seem, with his 
nighok, or eel-spear, a pole cleft at the bottom 
with a spike inserted. This, on his striking a 
fish of any size, would open and admit it till the 
spike perforated it, and then closing upon it, 
would press it and prevent its escape. The 
sandy or stony bottom of the river in the shal- 
lows, — for in deeper water this sport cannot be 
pursued, was seen as clearly as in the day, and 
every fish in it. The fish seemed at least bewil- 
dered, if not attracted by the light; and the 



TROUT-SPEARING. 187 

quickness of the eye, and adroitness of the man 
who used the nighok, impelling, as he did, the 
canoe with the thick end, and every now and 
then reversing it to strike, were surprising. He 
struck successfully eight out of ten of the 
fish at which he aimed, and shook them off 
into the boat with a sudden turn of his arm, 
which left him at liberty to strike at two fish 
within a second or two. He kept his balance, 
also, with great niceness, when he seemed to 
have poised himself so far over the side of the 
light canoe, that he must, it seemed to me, 
have gone overboard, or capsized our crank 
bark. The light of the flambeaux in the other 
canoes, as they came round the projecting 
points of leafy green ; and the shade, as we again 
lost view of them behind the trees or rocks in 
the distance, was most imposing. Four hun- 
dred trout were thus speared in the canoe in 
which I was ; some of them were of such a size, 
that they would have been taken, as they fre- 
quently are, in the salmon nets. In the five 
canoes, above one thousand were taken in little 
more than two hours. I had the curiosity to 
weigh six of them, which together weighed 



188 ST. GEORGES'S HARBOUR. 



twenty-two pounds, and had a barrel of this 
night's catch salt 
me to St. John's. 



night's catch salted that I might take them with 



Sunday J 12. — Three full services at Sandy 
Point ; but, hearing that old Mrs. Huelen of the 
Barrisways was dangerously ill, I walked up 
thither in the following week to see her. A son at 
the farther Barrisway, who was also an invalid, 
was gratified by my visiting him in his sick-room. 

Sunday , 19. — Three full services at the 
Barrisways. 

Friday, 24. — A new scnooner belonging to 
my kind friends, Mr. Horatio Forrest, and 
Joseph Pennall, for the launching of which I had 
been anxiously waiting, being now rigged and 
loaded and ready for sea, I took leave of the worthy 
inhabitants of St. George's Harbour, (of whose 
kindness I shall ever entertain an affectionate 
recollection,) in an evening service which was 
very crowded, and 

Saturday, 25. — Sailed from Sandy Point at 

five, A.M. 



WRECKS. 189 

Sunday, 26. — Put into Port aux Basque, and 
held full service at the house of Michael 
Guillam, where I slept. I baptized a grand- 
child which had been added to his family since I 
passed and officiated here in May. Near this 
place, I saw on Shagrock the hull of the ship 
James. She had been wrecked here since I 
passed, and had been sold for twenty shillings. 
The hull of the " Nathanael Graham," which 
had been wrecked within an hour of her, was 
also visible. Forty passengers had lost their 
lives. It was on this occasion that Joseph 
Miessau distinguished himself as mentioned un- 
der the date of May 7. While I was in St. 
George's Bay many articles, such as beds, 
blankets, and tools, which had been washed 
from these wrecks, had been driven ashore 
there; and, among other things a trunk with 
female apparel, and some letters directed to 
persons in Canada in the United States. These 
I enclosed and forwarded, with an account of 
the sad fate, which it was too likely had arrested 
the person to whose charge they had been 
confided. 

Monday, 27. — A difficulty which prevented 



190 MET WITH FRIENDS. 

our getting up our anchor for some hours this 
morning, I lamented at the time, but was after- 
wards thankful for it. Through the delay thus 
occasioned, I met, off La Poile Bay, a cutter, 
which I should else have missed, that my dear 
wife and friends in St. John's had hired and 
fitted up, and despatched for meat the beginning 
of July. They had been much alarmed for my 
safety, as no accounts of me whateverhad reached 
them for three months, till a letter was received 
by my wife, which I had sent from St. George's 
Bay via Sydney, Cape Breton Island, and 
another via Quebec. As we hove in sight, the 
cutter hoisted a flag, which I have had made 
for occasions of this kind, bearing the arms 
of the see of Nova Scotia. I did not expect 
any thing of the kind, however, and did not 
consequently recognize it, taking it for some 
merchant's private signal. We only spoke to 
them, for the chance of her having come from 
St. John's, and having letters on board for me, 
or papers, for which, it may be imagined, I was 
most anxious, as I had only heard once from my 
wife during my long absence. I soon recog- 
nized the person of my friend Mr. James Stokes 
on her deck, who had kindly engaged to assist 



ANXIETY FOR ME. 191 

in the search for me. He had touched at several 
places upon his way, and, although he had 
occasionally collected some slight information 
of my movements during the v^inter, the intelli- 
gence which he could collect was, on the whole, 
so little satisfactory that he had positively given 
me up. I now shifted my quarters at sea, 
which many would not have been sorry to do, 
as the new schooner had a considerable leak, 
which could not be discovered, and made very 
frequent pumping absolutely necessary. I would 
readily, now that I had the disposal of a nice 
cutter and crew, have called on the interesting 
inhabitants of the Borgeo Islands whom I had 
been so sorry to pass as I went along on the 
2nd of May. I directed that we should bear 
away for them immediately on getting on board; 
it was night, however, when we got abreast 
of them : the coast was a dangerous one for our 
attempting to keep standing off and on for the 
night; the wind, moreover, was fair, so we filled 
the sheet, and by the morning were near St. 
Peter's. Off this island we were becalmed, and 
the weather became very thick. We went to the 
roads, therefore, and called in at St. Peter's, 
where I had pleasure in renewing my acquaint- 



192 ST. PETERS. 

ance with the French commandant, Captain 
Brue, and partook of kind hospitalities of several 
of his people during the two days of our deten- 
tion. I had had many opportunities of hearing, 
and, indeed, of witnessing instances of the slight 
estimation in which the French, who were 
fishing on this coast from St. Maloes and Gran- 
ville, hold their clergy. When the cutter had 
put in, on its way, at St. Peter's, among other 
places, to make inquiry for me, considerable 
surprise was excited among the French people 
at the fact of any anxiety's being shown in St. 
John's for the safety of a padre, and they 
declared that if a whole ship's load of their 
padres were to go to the bottom, they would 
none of them break their slumbers on that score! 
It is to be feared that the levity of this remark 
may have not far exceeded the bounds of truth ; 
and the melancholy view which it gives of the 
slight esteem in which the French hold their 
ministers of religion, is too faithfully descriptive 
of the people. When the wind allowed of our 
departure we weighed anchor, and, — except 
that we were mercifully preserved from running 
ashore on Goose Island, near Capliu Bay, when 
the wind was on shore, and the weather so thick 



FACTION AT ST. JOHn's. 193 

that we could see no land, nor the very breakers 
which discovered the land to us more than 
the cutter's length a-head of us ! there was 
nothing in the remainder of my passage worthy 
of record, 

Tuesday, August 4. — After a vain attempt to 
get into the Narrows of St. John's Harbour, the 
cutter put back, at my suggestion, into Petty 
Harbour. Thence I walked to town after dark 
with Mr. James Stokes, by the new line of 
road through the woods to St. John's, on which 
the road commissioners have lately expended 
521. I was exceedingly grieved, on my return 
to St. John's, to find that a factious party under 
the influence, to which allusion is made at the 
date of March 4, had, in my absence, occa- 
sioned much apprehension to the more orderly 
inhabitants of St. John's, and the island at 
large. They had openly declared from the altar, 
that the sword of the church was unsheathed. 
Mr. Henry Winton, the editor of one of the 
public newspapers, who had rendered himself 
obnoxious to the Right Reverend Bishop Fleming 
and his seditious political colleagues in the 
priesthood, by his simple remonstrance against 





194 HON. H. J. BOULTON. 

their interference with the political rights of the 
people; who never, moreover, had written a 
syllable in the way of reflection, except re- 
spectfully, upon their religion, had (besides other 
attacks on his person,) been savagely assaulted 
in open day, and his ears mutilated, to the 
danger of his life ; those who subscribed to his 
paper, or dealt with him, and other protestants 
who were named, were denounced from the altar, 
and if Romanists, were excommunicated ; under 
which sentence I found some of the most re- 
spectable of that communion on my return, and 
know that the same sentence is on them at the 
moment of my writing. Persons had been 
directed from the altar of the Romish chapel in 
this town, which is a temple of sedition, to affix 
their names to a petition which the same factious 
party had got up against the Honourable Henry 
John Boulton, our excellent Chief Justice, whose 
only crime is an unflinching, impartial adminis- 
tration of law, which that priesthood are con- 
stantly affirming from the altar, is unnecessary 
in Newfoundland, as they have a power far 
superior to that of the law in this island. The 
sense of His Majesty's government on this peti- 
tion has reached us, while I am writing, and it is 



ST. Bartholomew's church. 195 

a matter of sincere rejoicing to all who love good 
order here, that the good Chief Justice has been 
supported by His Majesty's government, in the 
entire legality of all the acts on which the 
factious promoters and writers of this petition 
had founded their vindictive and false allegations, 
and that he will return to preside over our legal 
tribunals. 

Sunday Sf 9, 16, and 23. — I was happy to 
renew my connection with the interesting con- 
gregation of St. Bartholomew's church, Portugal 
Cove, to which place, through the exertions 
of the late excellent governor, Sir Thomas 
John Cochrane, there is a very good road from 
St. John's, far different from that by which I 
travelled on my first visit to this island in 1827. 
Here I held two full services on each Sunday, 
baptized six children, and administered the 
Lord's Supper to twenty-two, the usual number 
of communicants at that settlement. 

Sunday, 30. — Appointed two sermons at the 
church of St. John's, for a collection in aid of 
the district committee of the Society for Pro- 
moting Christian Knowledge, with a special 
o 2 



196 SERMONS IN AID 

view to the supply of bibles, prayer books, and 
tracts, to the settlements on the southern and 
western shores which I had lately visited. I 
took the pulpit on one part of the day myself, 
and the cause was ably advocated on the other 
part of the day, by the Rev. Thomas Martin 
Wood. Our appeals were responded to very libe- 
rally by the people, and above 301. were collected 
for the object, which is a greater sum than any two 
sermons ever procured at St. John's in one day 
before ; but liberal as the aid thus afforded me 
was, shall I be thought unreasonable if I exclaim, 
" What were they among so many ?" Books to 
the whole amount have been forwarded, or are 
packed up, waiting opportunities of being for- 
warded, from the merchants' houses, to the 
anxious expectants, many of whom will, I fear, 
have already been tempted, — in their impatience 
for the sacred volume which I promised them, 
and which, above all, has been prized, — to 
exclaim, " Ah ! the Deacon," — for in this man- 
ner they designate the archdeacon, — '' has for- 
gotten his promise !" But I have not forgotten 
my promise ; and one grand object of my sub- 
mitting these pages of my journal to other eyes 
than to those of the Committee of the Society 



OF SUPPLY OF BOOKS. 197 

whose servant in the church I am, is, that the 
sympathy of a christian public may be enlisted 
in the behalf of the people of Newfounland. 
And, Christian reader ! I am convinced, that I 
have not over-rated your generous sympathy, 
when I have promised myself, that in this matter 
it would give you pleasure to help the societies, 
which have so often helped myself and my 
brother missionaries. The wants which I have 
discovered — of hooks alone — have, I grieve to 
say, been very, very far beyond what my means 
— far beyond what the means our district com- 
mittee could place at my disposal, would enable 
me to supply. I sincerely hope that my nar- 
rative may stimulate the charitable at home to a 
more liberal aid of the societies ;* that the 
missionary may never lack the Bible and other 
good books, to send into some lone district, 
where they may supply to the people, in some 

* The Editor would take this opportunity, as the Arch- 
deacon may have no other puhlic means of thanking the 
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Bible 
Society, the Prayer Book and Homily Society, the Reli- 
gious Tract Society, the Sunday School Society, and 
the American Bible and Tract Society, for their liberal 
grants of books for the Island of Newfoundland, in 1835. 



198 APPEAL TO THE 

degree, the hallowed associations which their 
sacred structures supply to the inhabitants of 
Great Britain, and what their zealous and justly 
beloved spiritual pastors are to them. 

Shall I be thought tedious, if, before I close 
this journal, I subjoin a letter which bears 
reference to an appeal which I am now making 
to the British public for funds for the erection of 
a second church in the town of St. John's, the 
capital of this island, — a convenience which 
was pronounced to be most requisite both by my 
predecessor in this archdeaconry, the venerable 
George Coster, and by the late governor. Sir 
Thomas John Cochrane, and which was so 
strongly recommended to the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, that, before my 
arrival in the island, its committee thus expressed 
itself in the Society's Report for 1827. "The 
population of St. John's has far outgrown the 
accommodation which the present church affords 
for public worship, and strong representations 
have been made to government for the erection 
of a second church, and the appointment of the 
archdeacon as the officiating minister. It would 
be a gratifying circumstance to record the com- 
rriencement of such a laudable undertaking, but 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 199 

as yet the impediments have been found insuper- 
able," p. 38. 

Again the committee of the above Society, in 
its Report for 1830, the year in which I com 
menced residence in St. John's, observes, at 
p. 33 : " The archdeacon in conformity with the 
wishes of the Society, has removed from Bona- 
vista to St. John's, a station affording a more 
ready communication with the clergy, and better 
adapted for the performance of his own duties. 
At St. John's the archdeacon officiates at a third 
service in the church, which, insufficient as 
it is for the accommodation of the increased 
population, still remains the only building appro- 
priated to the members of the Church of Eng- 
land, in a place where the Protestants amount 
to more than five thousand." 

This inconvenience arising from want of 
church-room, which had been lamented previous 
to 1827, has, it may be imagined, increased 
since : it was so much felt by a very worthy lay- 
member of the Protestant Episcopal Communion 
in 1833, that he addressed me upon the subject 
as follows : — 



200 APPEAL TO THE 

" St. John's, Newfoundland, 
Sept. 22, 1833. 
" To the Venerable Archdeacon Wix. 

" My Dear Sir, 
"As late as ten o'clock last evening, I was 
made acquainted with the fact that the Roman 
Catholic Bishop, Dr. Fleming, when in Ireland, 
had raised a very large subscription for the 
purpose of erecting a new chapel in this town, 
which, I am informed, is to be one of the finest 
buildings in any of the provinces. Having so 
frequently heard you lament the want of church- 
room in the present church, for the professors 
of the Protestant Episcopal creed, as well as 
their inability, from various causes, to raise 
sufficient funds for a suitable building to be 
dedicated to the worship of God, where the 
poor Protestant Episcopalian may be allowed 
to partake of the same blessing of hearing the 
Gospel preached to him, that is now almost 
exclusively enjoyed by his richer neighbours, 
and, being strongly impressed with a belief, — 
indeed, I may say, thoroughly convinced that 
your labours would be attended with success, I 
cannot resist the strong impulse which I feel of 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 201 

calling on you to proceed to England, and there 
advocate that cause to which you have already 
dedicated your best energies here. 

" Neither have you any reason to be dis- 
couraged. With the example of Mr. Codner's 
success, in establishing throughout our island 
those schools, which will ever rank among its 
greatest blessings, with the example of an hum- 
ble individual conferring a benefit on a colony 
to such an extent that, but to have predicted 
at the commencement of his labours, would 
have rendered the prophecy a cause of ridicule, 
even to the most credulous, and excited the 
incredulity of the most sanguine. Having, also, 
the success of a Roman Catholic Bishop, in so 
poor a country as Ireland, what reason can 
there be for doubting the liberality, the charity, 
or the Christian spirit of her more wealthy 
neighbour, or for supposing that her exertions in 
the cause of religion would be less than we have 
already proved them to be in that of education ? 

" What country than England has done more 
for the cause of Christ, and to what part of 
the habitable world has she not extended His 
Gospel ? Shall that country that cares for the 
salvation of the Hottentot, the Esquimaux, and 



202 APPEAL TO THE 

the poor degraded Sudra, — shall she suffer her 
own children to lack the means of grace in one 
of her oldest and nearest colonies, where 
poverty at home has compelled them to seek 
the means of subsistence ? Will her aristocracy, 
whose land has been, in a great measure, re- 
lieved by us of the burden of maintaining a 
superabundant population at home, withhold 
from us its hand in assisting us to provide the 
means of worshipping our God after the manner 
of our fathers ? Will her merchants and manu- 
facturers, into whose coffers the largest part of 
the profits of our joint labours imperceptibly 
flows, refuse to contribute their portion to a 
purpose where their offering will be thrice 
blessed ; blessed in the giving, blessed in the 
receiving, and once again blessed hereafter ? 
Will even her poor withhold from us their mite 
for the purpose of extending to their distressed 
brethren that privilege of worshipping their 
Maker which they themselves so abundantly 
enjoy at home? 

" Once more, then, I call on you (and let the 
occasion be my apology,) to plead the wants of 
the poor, to advocate the cause of our Re- 
deemer. You, to whom the pulpits of our 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 203 

church will at all times be open ; who, from 
your rank among her clergy, possess advantages 
which no layman can obtain, appear, under God, 
to be likely to procure the means of enabling 
her to keep pace with her powerful competitors 
in this island. We have, already, two dissenting 
chapels, while the Roman Catholic establish- 
ment is about to be doubled ; with but one 
place of worship, and that too small to contain 
those of her creed who can afford to pay for 
accommodation, what choice have the poor 
among the Episcopalians between apostacy and 
infidelity ? 

'* May I entertain the hope that, at no very 
distant period, I shall see you embark on this 
hallowed pilgrimage, and have the pleasure 
of saying, ' God speed you !' 

** Very faithfully yours,'* 

^ * ^ * 

Although the writer of this letter did but 
represent the wishes of several most estimable 
members of the church here, who were equally 
interested with himself in the measure proposed, 
I did not feel at liberty to desert my charge on 
such a mission. Ill health, however, made it 
absolutely necessary, at the close of that year, 



204 APPEAL TO THE 

that I should seek the rest of a sea voyage, and 
temporary repose in England. On my arrival 
in England, I fondly entertained the hope that I 
might be permitted to devote such strength as 
I possessed to pleading the cause of the church 
in Newfoundland ; and many clergy, to whom I 
offer my thanks in the name of the poor pro- 
testant Episcopalians of the town of St. John's, 
most kindly offered me their churches that I 
might make appeals to their several congre- 
gations on behalf of the Newfoundland emigrant 
churchmen. The Committee of the " Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts," to which this island is altogether in- 
debted for its church institutions, its clergy, and 
till recently has been indebted also for all its 
schools, discountenanced my making any appeal 
to the public at that period, however, on the 
supposition that any appeal to the public for a 
particular specific object might operate preju- 
dicially against the success of some grand 
appeal which that Society at that time meditated 
making for its general objects. Of course it was 
my duty to comply with this decision of a com- 
mittee of the Society in the service of which 
I am engaged, and, after I had, through God's 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 205 

blessing on my native air, sufficiently recruited 
my strength, I returned with a very heavy 
heart to this scene of spiritual destitution, with- 
out having been able to accomplish any thing 
for its improvement. The evil which I had 
hoped to remedy had increased and is still 
increasing, to such a degree, that some effort 
must immediately be made, if our communion 
is to be protected from serious loss. 

Under these circumstances, I have felt it to 
be my imperative duty to set about the erection 
of a second protestant episcopal church in St. 
John's. The good wishes which were every- 
where expressed towards this measure, while I 
was in England, and the many offers of aid 
which my correspondents in the parent country 
have kindly made me, in the event of any public 
appeal being yet made for the object in England, 
embolden me to hope that 1 shall not now be 
left alone in this very serious undertaking. Two 
thousand pounds are needed for the accomplish- 
ment of the object which is at present con- 
templated, viz., the building by contract of a 
church sixty-two feet by thirty-six, with galle- 
ries, capable of holding seven hundred persons 
at least, one-half of whom will, in the event of 



206 APPEAL TO THE 

the measure being properly aided, be accommo- 
dated with free sittings, and the remainder with 
seats, at a much lower rate of payment than is 
now required for such accommodation. The 
publishers of this journal are authorized to re- 
ceive subscriptions for this object ; and most 
anxiously will the writer look for the next arri- 
vals from Europe, which may announce to him 
the degree of success which has attended his 
present appeal. 

His primary object is, indeed, that of exciting 
the liberality of those who have the means of 
helping him in his attempt to afford this neces- 
sary church accommodation to the members of 
the protestant episcopal communion in St. 
John's. But he would wish, also, to excite a 
feeling of Christian sympathy for the entire 
population of the island, which is upwards of 
seventy thousand. He has recently visited 
several portions of it which had never before 
been visited by any minister of any name. The 
same cannot be said of several other portions 
which he lately visited, only because, five years 
since, he had himself paid them, before, the 
first visit which they had ever received. Those 
who desire the spread of the Redeemer's king- 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 207 

dom, and are anxious to hear the state of their 
less favoured brethren abroad, will, doubtless, 
have been interested in the report which he has 
submitted to their notice, of the religious state 
of a portion of the Christian family with which 
they were not previously acquainted, or but 
imperfectly acquainted. 

The analogy between the case of Christian 
missionaries, and that of the spies who were 
sent into Canaan (Numbers xiii.), will not hold 
in one particular. They went out from the 
wilderness ; and they went into Canaan, the 
land of promise, to the very name of which we 
are accustomed to attach ideas of joy and 
peace, and tranquil rest, and calm delight in 
God's presence and favour. But, ah ! your 
missionaries go forth out of more favoured dis- 
tricts into those less privileged ! We leave the 
seats, in which are the comforts of religious 
society, and the treasures of religious privilege, 
and the parts which we traverse are the desert 
and the wilderness. Do not expect, then, 
favoured members of the church I that, if we be 
faithful in our testimony, we can bring you, 
like Caleb and Joshua, a thoroughly favourable 
report of the goodness of the land into which 



208 APPEAL TO THE 

we are sent. With Caleb and Joshua, we 
would say to the Christian, who is properly 
zealous for the spread of Christ's kingdom, 
" Go up, and possess it. The Lord will give it 
into your hand." But we are compelled to say 
also, with the greater number of those who had 
viewed the land of Canaan, that there are for- 
midable obstacles against your extending in it 
immediately the triumphs of the cross ; " The 
children of Anak," giants in wickedness, may 
occasionally be found. 

And who can be surprised that such should 
be the fact? Readers, which of you, who know 
the first principles of our faith, can wonder 
that man, left to nature, should break out into 
acts of wickedness ? You have been religiously and 
virtuously brought up, — you have lived beneath 
the light of christian privileges, — you have 
had opportunities of improvement by religious 
intercourse, — your Sabbaths have been passed 
within sound of the bell which has called you 
regularly to the house of prayer : but have you, 
with all these rich advantages, been able to 
root out all propensity to evil ? Are you living 
to the Spirit ? Can you be surprised, then, 
that men, removed from the restraints which a 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 209 

Christian society imposes upon you, — removed 
from all opportunities of obtaining religious in- 
formation from their cradle to their grave, should, 
some of them, live without God in the world ? 
and that the more serious of them, who have 
had some little education, should bring to the 
inquiry, *^ what shall we do to be saved ?" an 
ignorance of a sadly fearful character ? 

The word of God might teach us, before 
experience, what would be the state of persons 
so situated : an acquaintance with their actual 
condition strengthens our belief in the testimony 
of the sacred volume. Could you see it, you 
would be led, by the sad contrast, to value the 
more highly the religious privileges which you 
enjoy yourselves ; you would be led to inquire 
of yourselves, '' What are we doing for the in- 
crease of religious knowledge among persons 
thus circumstanced ?" And when an oppor- 
tunity such as this is afforded, of pouring some 
rays of light upon the path of those who are 
wandering in darkness and error, you would be 
led in your love for souls, and your desire to 
promote God's honour, to ask, not how little — 
but *' how much can I give unto the Lord ?" 

Place yourselves in the lonely cabins, some 



210 APPEAL TO THE 

of which I have endeavoured to describe to you. 
In the absence of all other teaching, will you 
deny them the word of God, which may be 
their guide in life — their comfort in death ? I 
need not tell you, who helieve, that the salva- 
tion — the eternal salvation of those for whom 
I plead, may hang upon this thread. When a 
drunkard has been rebuked, will you not enable 
your missionary to follow his warning by the 
gift of a silent preacher, which, five hundred 
miles from where I now am writing, — above 
two thousand from where you are reading, — 
may remind him of the sin and danger of his 
habit ? When parents have shown a desire to 
lead forward their little ones to godliness and 
prayer, will you deny your missionary the means 
to supply them with the book of instruction, 
which may help them in their christian efforts ? 
When any, who have shown a desire to learn 
the way to heaven, are ignorant of the first 
principles of our faith, shall not your missionary 
be enabled to supply them the instruction, 
which may direct them to Christ and teach 
them the need of the Holy Spirit ? Follow the 
donation of books which your bounty has sup- 
plied to the missionary : follow it with your 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 211 

prayers; but follow it, too, in imagination. I 
speak not of the delight with which he is himself 
penetrated, when he receives the welcome testi- 
mony of your sympathy in his labours, and puts 
his confidence for a blessing on their use in that 
God, whose blessing he believes you have in- 
voked on them before you sent them forth ; but 
follow them, I beg you — follow them in imagi- 
nation upon their further voyage, when they 
are sent forth by your missionary to gladden 
the eye of many a christian mother, to encou- 
rage the emulation of many a lisping child, to 
bring tears of penitence to the cheek of man or 
woman, who is living in iniquity, to soothe the 
bed of sickness, and to smooth the bed of death. 
It may increase your desire to send to these 
destitute people of Newfoundland the means of 
spiritual improvement, if I relate to you the 
constant temptations to which, even the most 
remote settlements are exposed through the 
introduction among them in trading vessels, of 
the means of intoxication at a very cheap rate. 
The effect of the visits of these vessels in many 
places, as I have already remarked, has been 
to make the visits of the missionary perfectly 
useless in situations, where no Christian minister 



212 APPEAL TO THE 

has ever been before, and where none may, 
during the lives of some of the present inhabit- 
ants, be ever seen again ; and 1 have found in 
places where the inhabitants were most addicted 
to the use of these liquors, such enormous 
depravity practised as I cannot name, such as 
would have roused execration in the most licen- 
tious days of heathen Rome. 

Again, shall I mention in vain that I have 
been in a settlement where the simple people 
were desirous of seeking God, — where seventy 
children might be collected in any school which 
might be opened, so anxious are their parents 
for their religious instruction. There an infidel, 
of better education than those around him, has 
been settled (since my first visit to the place in 
1830,) from the States of the American Union. 
For the last four years, I found that it had been 
his delight to ridicule what he esteems the pre- 
judices of the Christian believer ! To spread 
among such of his neighbours as can read, the 
licentious tracts of the Freethinker, and to en- 
courage in the young, an early assertion of their 
independence upon the parents under whose 
roof they were thanklessly lodging, and whose 
bread they were idly eating ! If I could only 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 213 

send into each settlement of the island, printed 
Gospel Truth, in the same quantity which this 
pestilent American settler had ready to dissemi- 
nate of publications of a contrary character, I 
should be happy. 

Christian reader ! Can you read with in- 
difference that, in a place where scriptural know- 
ledge is necessarily very low, publications should 
be propagated of so mischievously and offen- 
sively infidel a character, that their editors have 
been prosecuted, and sentenced, for their blas- 
phemy, even in the American state of Boston, 
where infidel opinions must be irreligious in- 
deed, to provoke a successful prosecution ? Can 
you learn with unconcern, that I saw several 
hundred copies of another publication, the aim 
of which was the overthrow of man's belief in 
an eternal punishment for sin, and which con- 
veyed notions the most confined, and confused, 
and unsatisfactory, respecting our divine atone- 
ment ? And, lastly, can you learn, without 
horror, that I saw many copies of works which 
were written for the express purpose of persuad- 
ing men to look to their own worth and their own 
works for salvation, and to think of Jesus only 
as a mere man like ourselves ? Language, 



214 APPEAL TO THE 

moreover, was, in one of these publications, — 
a Boston weekly periodical, which, I regret to 
write, has its two thousand subscribers, and an 
agent in Halifax, the capital of the diocese of 
Nova Scotia, and another at Quebec, — language 
was, in this, used respecting that Jesus, at 
whose name we bow, of such awfully blas- 
phemous character, that the most profane about 
the wharfs of this very profane place in which I 
am now writing, would, I trust, shudder at its 
repetition ! 

These books were in the hands, too, of one 
who travels much about the island ; who has 
opportunities of visiting distant settlements, 
conversing with the people, and influencing their 
minds, which the missionary might envy. And 
these books are his companions ! These fright- 
ful tenets are the topics of his conversation ! 
These are his sentiments on revealed religion, 
and these he takes delight in spreading ! But, 
Christian reader of this appeal ! shall these books 
and these opinions, — shall any unscriptural 
tracts, by whomsoever propagated, be permitted 
to poison the minds of the growing generation, 
and will you not be ready to help to draw out 
the poison ? Will you not lift up your hands in 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 215 

prayer, as you look upon the country, from 
your own holy mountain ; while you send forth 
the weapons of the Spirit, pointed from the 
armoury of God, to fight such foes ? What, 
though the children of Anak be mighty, in such 
a trial they must faint, and fail, and fall ! Their 
defence will depart from them. We may be as- 
sured, that the Lord will be with us, and we need 
not fear them ! I have been grieved to see such 
works in such a quarter ; — I have grieved as I have 
viewed the mournful destitution of the members 
of our church along these rugged shores. I am 
deeply, deeply grieved, when I think of the 
thousands in this town alone, who are now as 
sheep having no shepherd. Yet I trust that the 
fact of the existence of these evils may be over- 
ruled by a kind God for good ! It will be so, — if 
you, who read this, will only give me the means 
of sending through the island the pure word of 
God, and proclaiming here, and propagating 
elsewhere, the plain exposition of the doctrines 
of man's salvation by grace, and his need of 
spiritual holiness. The youngest child may then 
supply his slings from the fountain of God's 
word, and the giant must fall. The truth must 



216 



APPEAL TO THE 



prevail ! the land must be ours for the Lord 
Christ. 

I have dwelt, it will be thought, long enough 
on the more sad portions of the report which 
may be made of those parts of the island which 
I have lately visited. I think I hear my readers 
ask, What ! are there none of the pomegranates 
and figs which were found in Canaan ? none of 
the clusters of the first ripe grapes ? Has our 
missionary found there no milk and honey, no 
fruits to tell him of what the land might produce 
under spiritual culture and nourishment ! O, 
yes ! blessed be God ! he has met much to com- 
fort, much to encourage him ! It has not been 
all cloud ; there have been rays of cheering 
light in the wilderness through which he has 
been led I Some of the fields are even now ripe 
for the harvest. He has, indeed, met with some 
sad, very sad testimonies to the ungodliness of 
the natural man. Yet, too, he has met, in so 
many instances, with proofs of the blessing of 
the Holy Spirit on very small advantages of 
religious information, that he does not distrust 
the pleasing assurance that the land may yet be 
ours. He places great hope on the divine bles- 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 217 

sing upon the effort which you will make in 
answer to this earnest appeal, and upon the 
alms which you are already eager to throw into 
this treasury of the Lord. 

Before the general introduction of Sunday 
schools into England, our humble fishermen, I 
have already reminded you, brought with them, 
it may be imagined, a very scanty degree of 
spiritual knowledge to this country of their 
adoption. Yet many who thus came out as 
boys, have, through the blessing of God upon 
the use of the Bible and Book of Common 
Prayer, kept up a religious feeling in their set- 
tlements ; and their children, and their children's 
children, are now inheriting the blessing. But 
these very rays of encouragement should affect 
you as strongly as the darker shades of the 
picture : they should interest you as deeply in 
behalf of the people ; they should stimulate your 
liberality as much. You will not be sending the 
missionary, the school, the Bible, the treasures 
which you value so much yourselves, to people 
who do not know their value : they may have no 
silver or gold to offer for them, but they esteem 
them not the less. You will not be casting 
pearls before swine. 



218 APPEAL TO THE 

I have informed you of the worthy man who 
lamented to me with deep feeling, that, when he 
and his neighbours were " sick and sore, there 
was none to visit them, none who cared for their 
souls !" Will you not enable me to supply him 
and the many who feel like him, with the vo- 
lume which may teach him to sanctify any suf- 
fering, and to look out of this wilderness into 
the bounds of the land of promise ? I have in- 
formed you of another, (and may there not be 
many such ?) who often drops a tear on the 
Lord's day, when he thinks how different it is 
where you are and where he once was, where 
the sweet Sabbath bell may be heard through- 
out the day ; did I think too well of you when I 
thought you would enable me to keep my pro- 
mise to him that he should have a volume of 
good sermons, such as he had heard in the 
church of his youth, which he might make use- 
ful to his neighbours by reading them aloud? 
And when another has said to me, and not with- 
out tears at the time of uttering it, that it often 
made him weep, in the wild place of his present 
abode, to think of the fine opportunities he 
had wasted while a boy, declaring that he 
should think more, were he again at home, of 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 219 

church-going now than he did then, shall I not 
be enabled by you to send him what may lead 
him, even at the eleventh hour, to redeem the 
time? And was I wrong when that young 
housekeeper told me with an air of artlessness 
which forbade the suspicion that she was exag- 
gerating, that next to the death of her dear 
parent, she had never felt a calamity greater 
than leaving behind her, on her marriage, some 
books which I gave her, five years ago, and 
which were so prized in her native settlement, 
that the surviving parent and her friends would 
not permit them to be removed ? Was I wrong 
in thinking that you would have pleasure in 
joining with me to prepare for her the grateful 
surprise of receiving a like present ? 

" Give me a Bible ; for years I have been 
craving for a bible. My eyes are getting bad, 
and ray bible is broken, and dark from smoke, 
and, were it not for that Testament, the print of 
which is larger, I could not read at all : but 
what I have read, has taught me to pray, and 
in several instances I have had prayers an- 
swered in a most remarkable way," said another 
to me. He had been often in perils, and most 
signally preserved. Between the time of my 



220 



APPEAL TO THE 



seeing him, and the present, he has fearlessly 
exposed his own life in his endeavour to save 
some fellow-creatures who were almost in an 
exhausted state, from one of the sad wrecks 
which are so common on this coast; eight or 
nine of which came under my knowledge this 
spring, " Pd sooner perish myself than see a 
fellow- creature drowning !" was his noble cry ; 
and, relying on his God, he dashed into the 
surf, and happily succeeded in drawing them 
through the breakers ! Shall I not be enabled 
to send this child of prayer, this intrepid child 
of storms, a copy of the Scriptures, by which 
his own faith in Christ may be confirmed, and 
he may be led to see farther the duty which 
is upon him to strengthen his brethren ? 

Christian readers ! you are yourselves looking 
forward with the humble confidence of one day 
being admitted to the glories of an heavenly 
Canaan, through the merits of your divine Re- 
deemer Jesus Christ. You have received, I 
trust, first fruits of the Spirit, some earnest of 
the rich inheritance of the saints in light. From 
these pledges you know, as well as from God's 
word, that Emanuel's land is an exceeding good 
land, a land which flows with milk and honey. 



BRITISH PUBLIC. 221 

You do not doubt of reaching this land ; though 
there are obstacles and trials in your way, you 
rely on One who is mightier than any one who 
can be against you ; who has promised to be 
with you even in your passage over the sepa- 
rating sea of death. In common with the rest 
of your fellow-creatures, you are called to endure 
trials. Do the hopes which you entertain of 
reaching this good land, give you comfort to 
support you under them? Would you barter 
away this hope for any of the treasures, any of 
the pleasures of this world ? No, Never ! ! 

Then help me to extend the knowledge of 
this land to those here who are in ignorance of 
its excellence and beauty. Shall any perish in 
this wilderness, whom you, reader ! might fur- 
nish the means to direct in the path which leads 
to a better country, and a happy heavenly home? 
Oh ! I feel convinced that you will aid me by 
your alms to instruct the babes of the fold of 
Christ who are looking to you to be fed ! to 
enlighten the ignorant who are seeking to be 
informed in the way of salvation ! to comfoit 
the sick who have no pastor to breathe by their 
beds the prayer of assurance in their dying 
hour! You will, at least, contribute vour mite 



222 APPEAL TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC. 

towards the erection of a second church in the 
capital of this island, where, taking his stand 
upon the world to come, the Christian mission- 
ary may effect a moral, a spiritual movement, 
in the mass of ignorance, superstition, idolatry, 
and various wickedness by which he is sur- 
rounded. You will, — you will entitle yourselves 
to the thanks, the prayers, and the blessings of 
those who are fainting and ready to perish ; 
who, through your means, shall drink of the 
fountain of living water, and be refreshed and 
satisfied, and saved through Jesus Christ ! 



METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 
JANUARY, 1835. 







THER. 


BAROMETER. 


WEATHEK. 






i 


< 


05 




Th. 


1 


44 


15 


29.19 


29,20 


Thick fog and rain, wind n.w. evening 


Fri. 


2 


19 


10 


29.64 


29.78 


Wind N.W., cloudy 


Sa. 


3 


19 


12 


29.81 


29.98 


Light winds, p.m. same, w.n.e. 


Su. 


4 


21 


5 


29.76 


29.92 


Fresh breeze, n.e., snow drift 


M. 


5 


22 





30.13 


30.15 


Fine wind n.w., p.m. cloudy 


Tu. 


6 


28 


16 


30.12 


30.20 


Cloudy W.S., P.M. snow 


W. 


7 


32 


21 


30.06 


29.76 


Strong breeze n.e., snow drift 


Th. 


8 


33 


30 


29.44 


29.39 


Silver thaw, strong gale n.e. 


Fri. 


9 


32 


28 


29.26 


29.34 


Ditto 


Sa. 


10 


29 


19 


29.64 


29.82 


Strong gale n.e., snow drift 


Su. 


11 


22 


15 


30.03 


30.00 


Fine, wind n.w. 


M. 


12 


29 


21 


29.88 


29.82 


Cloudy, wind w.s.w., pm. fine 


Tu. 


13 


27 


18 


29.76 


29.72 


Ditto 


W. 


14 


31 


23 


29.83 


29.89 


Light winds e., hazy 


Th. 


15 


32 


28 


29.94 


29.98 


Ditto 


Fri. 


16 


32 


27 


30.06 


30.03 


Ditto 


Sa. 


17 


36 


31 


29.67 


29.42 


Fresh breeze s.e., rain p.m. wind s.w. 


Su. 


18 


34 


20 


29.40 


29.48 


Wind w., cloudy, p.m. squalls 


M. 


19 


24 


18 


29.66 


29.74 


Cloudy, wind w.n.w. 


Tu. 


20 


25 


20 


29.52 


28.96 


Strong breeze n.n.e., snow drift 


W. 


21 


26 


14 


28.70 


29.42 


Ditto, P.M. strong gale, wind n.n.w. 


Th, 


22 


43 


16 


29.71 


29.18 


Fine, wind w.n.w., snow drift in evening 


Fri. 


23 


34 


29 


29.23 


29.52 


Fine breeze w. 


Sa. 


24 


28 


20 


29.18 


29.37 


Cloudy, wind n.w., p.m. snow squalls 


Su. 


25 


25 


14 


29.53 


29.84 


Wind N.w., snow squalls, p. m. cloudy 


M. 


26 


25 


20 


29.99 


29.80 


Fine, wind w.n.w., p.m. cloudy, snow even. 


Tu. 


27 


27 


24 


29.51 


29.43 


Fresh gale n.e. snow and drift 


W. 


28 


29 


6 


29.78 


29.91 


Fine, wind n. 


Th. 


29 


29 


20 


29.69 


29.38 


Foggy, wind e., p.m. snow 


Fri. 


30 


24 


18 


29.66 


29.96 


Wind N. cloudy 


Sa. 


31 


40 


25 


30.01 


29.86 


Wind N.E., cloudy, p.m. snow, rain in even 



Mean temperature of January, 24° 3-31. — Highest 44°. — Lowest 5°. 



224 



METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 

FEBRUARY, 1835. 







THER. 


BAROMETER. 




>< 

re 


a 




i 






§ 


i 


O) 


a> 


Su. 


1 


45 


29 


29.50 


29.34 


M. 


2 


37 


22 


29.39 


29.60 


Tu. 


3 


28 





29.65 


29.84 


W. 


4 


41 


7 


30.18 


29.47 


Th. 


5 


27 


13 


28.78 


29.57 


Fri. 


6 


23 


10 


29.84 


30.19 


Sa. 


7 


43 


20 


30.32 


29.98 


Su. 


8 


44 


26 


29.74 


29.44 


M. 


9 


29 


19 


29.53 


30.01 


Tu. 


10 


28 


13 


30.09 


30.25 


W. 


11 


42 


25 


30.18 


29.84 


Th. 


12 


43 


28 


29.18 


29.60 


Fri. 


13 


36 


23 


29.51 


29.96 


Sa. 


14 


43 


20 


30.10 


29.87 


Su. 


15 


23 


13 


30.32 


30.44 


M. 


16 


24 


12 


30.23 


30.14 


Tu. 


17 


28 


18 


30.22 


30.03 


W. 


18 


32 


23 


29.75 


29.63 


Th. 


19 


24 


20 


29,40 


29.76 


Fri. 


20 


29 


11 


29.77 


29.80 


Sa. 


21 


33 


15 


29.89 


29.80 


Su. 


22 


37 


31 


29.70 


29.65 


M. 


23 


37 


14 


29.24 


29.50 


Tu. 


24 


17 


5 


30.02 


30.24 


W. 


25 


22 


10 


30.18 


30.16 


Th. 


26 


35 


20 


30.00 


29.56 


Fri. 


27 


42 


24 


29.84 


29.91 


Sa. 


28 


47 


18 


29.25 


29.50 



WEATHER. 



Rain, wind s.w., p.m. wind w. 
Snow, wind n.e., wind n.n.e. 
Wind It. & vble., p.m. gale nw. & s.n. dft. 
Light winds, n.e., p.m. strg. gale & sn. dft. 
Rn. at 8, wind w.n.w., stg. gale & sn. sqls. 
Fine fresh breeze westerly 
Cloudy, P.M. wind s.e., snow 
Wind sw., fresh breeze, p.m. rain 
Strong breeze w., p.m. moderate 
Wind w., cloudy, p.m. fine 
Cloudy, wind s. 

Fresh breeze s.w., fog and rain, p.m. fine- 
Wind S.W., cloudy, p.m. wind w. 
Ditto, rain in the evening 
Fine, wind w.n.w. 
Cloudy, wind light and variable 
Ditto, midnight, snow 
Light winds and foggy 
Strong breeze n.e., and snow drift 
Snow, wind e. 
Fine, wind n. 
Wind s.w. cloudy 

Ditto fog., strong gale from w.n.w. in evn. 
Strong breeze n.w., cloudy, p.m. fine 
Fine, light winds w., p.m. n.e. 
Wind E.S.E., cloudy, p.m. snow 
Wind W.N.W., cloudy, snow in evening 
Rain, wind s.s.w., midnight w.n.w. 



Mean temperature of February, 25^°.— Highest 47°.— Lowest 0. 



METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 
MARCH 1835. 



225 





THER. 


BAROMETER. 












§ 


S 1 05 


03 


1 


27 


8 '29.90 


30.16 


2 


25 


15| 


30.33 


30.24 


3 


29 


18 


30.31 


29.95 


4 


23 


10 


29.76 


29.98 


5 


25 


8 


29.87 


30.24 


6 


30 


17 


30.30 


30.18 


7 


32 


12 30.13 


30.38 


8 


24 


20 j 30.49 


29.94 


9 


27 


9 i 29.60 


29.98 


10 


22 


2 1 29.97 


29.86 


U 


20 


14129.59 


29.20 


12 


22 


2 1 29.24 


29.62 


13 


32 


15129.69 


29.68 


14 


36 


18 j 29.08 


28.98 


15 


34 


20 i 29.60 


29.63 


16 


42 


30 29.66 


29.50 


17 


36 


17 


29.03 


29.30 


18 


25 


9 


28.62 


29.40 


19 


32 


20 


29.87 


29.92 


20 


37 


15 


28.96 


29.02 


21 


19 


5 


29.35 


29.52 


22 


16 


8 


29.70 


29.97 


23 


47 


25 


29.70 


29.48 


24 


33 


17 


29.67 


29.88 


25 


32 


5 


30.09 


30.30 


26 


22 


7 


30.15 


30.04 


27 


25 


15 


29.92 


29.83 


28 


34 


27 


29.65 


i 29.61 


29 


43 


31 


29.70 


! 29.87 


30 


41 


30 


29.91 


29.87 


31 


36 


32 


29.79 


29.56 



WEATHER. 



Cldy. wind w.n.w., p.m. snow, evn. fine 

Light and changeable winds and cloudy 

Fine, wnd. x.e. stg. bvz. 6c snw. drft. in evn. 

Wind N.w. fresh breeze, cloudy p. m. fine 

Wind N. snow drift, p.m. fine 

Fine, wind w. 

Fine, wind n. 

Fresh breeze n.e., p.m. snow drift 

Wind NE., fresh breeze and snow drift 

Overcast sky, wind n.e. 

Fresh breeze n.e., p.m. snow drift 

Strong breeze n. snow drift, p.m. fine 

Calm and fine p.m. fresh breeze w.s.w. 

Gale s.s.E. snow drift p.m., wind s.w. 

Fresh breeze W.N. w. 

W'ind S.W., cloudy 

Rain, wind sw. evening, wind n.e. 

Gale S.E., snw. dft. p.m., gale n.w. sn. dft. 

Fine, wind w.n.w. 

Gale N.K. snw. drft., p.m, strong brz. n.w. 

Wind N.W., strong breeze and cloudy 

Fine, wind n.vv., p.m. cloudy 

w.E. strong breeze 6c snow drift, p.m. rain 

Fresh breeze w. and cloudy 

W'ind s. with snow., p.m. fine 

Cloudy, wind w.n.w., p.m. wind n.a.e 

Wind N.W., cloudy, p.m. snow squalls 

Wind N.E., cloudy 

Light winds and thick weather 

Light winds from the n. 

Light gale e.s.e. and rain in the evening 



:Mean temperature of March, 22° 41-62. 
Q 



-Highest 47"=.— Lowest 2 



2-26 



METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 

APRIL 1835. 



W. 
Th. 
Fri. 
Sa. 
Su. 
M. 
Tu. 
W. 
Th. 
Fri. 

Sa. 
Su. 
M. 
Tu. 

W. 
Th. 

Fii. 

Sa. 

Su. 

M. 

Tu. 

W. 

Th. 

Fri. 

Sa. 

Su. 

M. 

Tu. 

W. 

lb. 



1 


THER. 1 


BAROMETER. 


AVEATHER. 




X 


c 


^ 


05 




1 


37 


32 


29.43 


29.35 


Wind N.E., drizzling rain 


2 


34 


25 


29.37 


29.52 


Ditto, snow in the evening 


3 


35 


28 


29.65 


29.80 


Wind N.E. thick weather 


4 


33 


20 


29.84 


29.91 


Fresh breeze n.e. cloudy 


5 


32 


19 


29.98 


30.17 


Fine, wind n. 


6 


46 


30 


30.10 


29.80 


Fine, light wind s., p.m. cloudy 


7 


51 


37 


29.52 


29.50 


Wind S.W., rain, p.m. cloudy 


8 


51 


32 


29.31 


29.40 


Calm thick weather, p.m. cloudy 


9 


45 


27 


29.45 


29.52 


Light and variable winds and cloudy 


10 


35 


29 


29.56 


29.55 


Wind e. thick fog, p.m. snow 


11 


34 


30 


29.52 


29.55 


Wind, N.N.E., snow 


12 


37 


31 


29.61 


29.49 


Wind N.E., fog, P.M. fsh. br., drizzl. raia 


13 


38 


33 


29.53 


29.23 


Fresh breeze n.e., drizzling rain 


14 


42 


34 


29.40 


29.23 


Fresh breeze n.e. and fog 


15 


39 


25 


28.95 


29.23 


Thick fog, light winds w. 


16 


33 


25 


29.30 


29.38 


Frost, wind w. snow squalls 


17 


33 


26 


29.19 


29.43 


Snow, wind n.e. 


18 


39 


20 


29.40 


29.35 


Wind E., snow 


19 


36 


21 


29.45 


29.80 


Wind N., cloudy 


20 


46 


30 


29.94 


29.65 


Overcast sky, wind w.s.w., p.m. snow 


21 


48 


28 


29.32 


29.30 


Strong gales s.w. with rain 


22 


41 


24 


29.74 


30.03 


Fresh breeze w.n w., p.m. fine 


23 


39 


132 


30.09 


29.90 


Wind S.E., cloudy, p.m. fresh breeze 


24 


48 


29 


29.56 


29.40 


Fresh breeze s.s.w., heavy rain 


25 


46 


24 


29.78 


29.98 


Wind S.W., cloudy 


26 


38 


27 


30.13 


30.15 


Wind N.E. fine 


27 


35 


29 


30.06 


29.55 


Fresh breeze s.e., p.m. snow 


23 


39 


27 


29.62 


30.00 


Wind N.N. w., snow squalls, p.m. fine 


29 


37 


30 


29.97 


29.68 


Wind N.N.E., cloudy 


30 


40 


26 


29.50 


29.46 


; Wind s. cloudy 

I 



Mean temperature of April, 33° 47-60,— Highest 51°. -Lowest 19^. 



METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 

MAY 1835. 



227 







THER. 


BAROMETER. 


WEATHER. 










05 






>i. 


1 


36 


29 


29.34 


29.30 


Wind s.w. cloudy, snow 


a. 


2 


39 


30 


29.23 


29.17 


Wind N., snow squalls 


u. 


3 


40 


31 


29.09 


29.15 


Fog & rain, wind n.e., snow, p.m. clear 


I. 


4 


35 


29 


29.24 


29.37 


Wind N., snow, p.m. rain, wind n.e. 


'u. 


5 


37 


31 


29.39 


29.53 


Snow, wind n.v.e. 


V. 


6 


37 


32 


29.62 


29.78 


Fresh breeze n.e. 


h. 


7 


43 


30 


29.76 


29.58 


Fine, wind light and variable, p.m. snow 


ri. 


8 


41 


31 


29.30 


29.31 


Fresh breeze, snow, p.m. wind n.e. 


a. 


9 


45 


30 


29.34 


29.30 


Wind w.N.w. cloudy 


u. 


10 


47 


28 


29.48 


29.56 


Ditto 


1. 


11 


42 


27 


29.61 


29.72 


Light and variable winds and cloudy 


u. 


12 


51 


34 


29.90 


30.16 


Fine, wind s.w., p.m. wind variable < 


V. 


13 


54 


32 


30.28 


30.30 


Fine, wind light & vble. p.m. fsh. brz. s.s.e. 


h. 


14 


39 


34 


29.93 


29.68 


Heavy rain, wind s.s.e., p.m. foggy 


ri. 


15 


51 


34 


29.51 


29.74 


Light winds and foggy, p.m. clear 


a. 


16 


42 


33 


29.90 


29.92 


Wind E. thick fog 


u. 


17 


58 


36 


29.87 


29.80 


Wind s.w., cloudy 


r. 


18 


59 


36 


29.60 


29.54 


Ditto 


u. 


19 


46 


34 


29.47 


29.44 


Fog and rain, wind It. and vble., p.m. clear 


V. 


20 


52 


31 


29.51 


29.46 


Wind s.w., cloudy, p.m. rain 


h. 


21 


39 


35 


29.44 


29.62 


Snow, wind n.n.e. 


ri. 


22 


42 


28 


29.86 


30.03 


Fresh breeze n.e. 


a. 


23 


52 


25 


30.08 


30.15 


Fine, wind light and variable 


u. 


24 


39 


33 


29.97 


29.83 


Fresh breeze n.n.e., snow .squalls 


I. 


25 


49 


35 


29.72 


29.69 


Thick fog, heavy rain, wind s.e. 


u. 


26 


49 


38 


29.53 


29.95 


Wind s., fog and rain 


V. 


27 


57 


34 


29.51 


29.80 


Cloudy, wind s.s.w. 


h. 


28 


39 


30 


29.70 


29.95 


Cold N.E. wind 


ri. 


29 


52 


39 


29.95 


29.80 


Wind s. showers in the evening 


a. 


30 


60 


35 


29.04 


29.47 


Showers, wind s.w. 


u. 


31 


48 


34 


29.74 


29.95 


Fine, wind variable, p.m. wind s.e. 



Mean temperature of May, 39° 10-31. —Highest 60°.— Lowest 25' 



228 



METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 

JUNE 1835. 



M. 

Tu. 

W. 

Th. 

Fri. 

Sa. 

Su. 

M. 

Tu. 

W. 

Th. 

Fri. 

Sa. 

Su. 

M. 

Tu. 

W. 

Th. 

Fri. 

Sa. 

Su. 

M. 

Tu. 

W. 

Th. 

Fri. 

Sa. 

Su. 

M. 

Tu. 



THER. BAROMETER. 



60 
64 

48 

52 

50 

40 

49 

61 

63 

37 

53 

59 

72 

55 

45 

45 

61 

58 

55 

61 

73 

67 

58 

62 

61 

57 

67 

73 

67 

61 



WEATHER. 



39.02 29.95 Fine, wind s.e., p.m. cloudy 

29.58 29.50 Rain, wind s.s.w., p.m. fine 

29.55 29.87 Wind n.e., cloudy 

29.95 29.76 Fine, wind light & variable, p.m. wind s.w. 

29.49 29.35 Wind w.s.w., cloudy, p.m. fine 

29.62 29.75 Cloudy, wind s.w. 

29.87 29.98 Fresh breeze, n.n.e. snow squalls 
29.95 29.80 Fresh breeze w.n.w. and fine 
29.74 29.50 Strong brteze s.w. 

29.67 29.89 Fine, wind n.n.e. snow squalls 
30.08 30.00 Fresh breeze w.n.w. and fine 
29.77 29.85 Strong breeze s.w. 

29.86 29.78 Fine, wind s.s.w. rain in evening 

29.76 29.75 Rain, wind w.s.w., p.m. wind n.e., foggy 

29.77 29.98 Wind n.e., foggy 

29.94 29.78 Fresh breeze, n.e., fog and rain 
29.65 29.80 Wind s.w., cioudy, p.m. fine 

29.88 29.89 Cloudy, wind s.w., rain in evening 

29.88 29.86 Wind s.s.w. foggy with shwrs, p.m. hvy. rn. 

29.94 30.00 Cloudy, wind variable, p.m. fine 

29.95 30.03 Wind s.w., frequent showers 
29.97 29.90 Light and variable winds and rain 

29.87 29.80 Cloudy, wind w.s.av., p.m. fine 
29.67 29.81 Wind s.w., cloudy 

29.81 29.78 Ditto, p.m. wind n.e. 
29.67 29.83 Fine, wind variable 

29.88 29.98 Wind s.s.w., fine 
30.04 30.11 Ditto 

30.11 30.00 Ditto 

29.86 29.90 Fog and rain, wind s.e. 



Mean temperature of June. 48° 2-31. —Highest, 73°.— Lowest, 29°. 



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